New Beginnings
by T. Drake
Summary: One tale's end breeds new beginnings. A colonel races to stop yet another looming war. A man finds new life, new hope, in the tender petals of a blossoming rose. Edward Elric...your life has only just begun.
1. Prologue

Um...so, I suppose I should give all the warnings and stuff up here. Massive spoiler warning for those who haven't seen to the end of the series. Alternate Ending, EdxRose, some WinryxEd, some RoyxRiza. Rated T for language, violence, and sappy romance scenes. Criticism, both positive and negative, greatly appreciated.

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**Prologue: Full Circle**

She walked away once more, her footsteps echoing in the dead city. She could hear her sleeping baby softly breathing in her arms, as she clutched him so close to her body. As she walked, she could almost hear his voice again, as they said their last farewell. They had said it so many times before. She had grown tired of it, tired of goodbyes, tired of walking away. But what else could she do?

She didn't know what he would do, but she knew this would be the last. There had been a finality in it their goodbye that was absolute. She knew, without any idea what he would do, that she would never see him again. And as she walked, she could feel the tears begin to drip down her face. Why was this happening to her? Why did this keep happening to her? Was she cursed, to lose everyone she loved?

"In order to obtain, something of equal value must be lost. This is alchemy's first law of equivalent exchange." The brother had told her this once, the brave, empty knight whose life had been given to bring back her one. As her tears stained the cold, dead ground beneath her, she could feel those words resonating inside her. Her footsteps began to slow, as she struggled over this. She was losing him now. What was there to gain?

"Well, it's sort of like, what you get is equal to what you put into it. In order to get something that you want, you have to put in an equal amount of effort." The brother had clarified that for her once. She had asked how it applied to the real world, and he had explained that. But even though these words were with her, even though she remembered them, she couldn't understand. She knew what she wanted. But what effort could she put into it? All she wanted was to not say goodbye anymore.

Her eyes fell to that sleeping baby in her arms. She loved him so much...her precious baby boy. She wouldn't let him go for anything in the world. Why couldn't she do that with...with him? With the man she left behind? Why couldn't she...wait, why _couldn't_ she?

Her legs stopped moving entirely. He had told her, long ago, to move forward. To keep moving forward. She had taken his words to heart, but now? She had moved forward enough. As her eyes fell back towards that horrible place, towards where they had said goodbye, she couldn't help but wonder. In order to obtain, she had to put in an equal amount of effort. She would never get anything if she wouldn't work for it. There are times when you have to move forward. Times when there are no other choices. But as she stared back, as she felt the effort stirring inside her, she knew. This was not one of those times. It was time to move backwards.

Her voice whispered in the cold, dead city. All she could think about was what she would do. Maybe, if she hurried, she could get there in time. Before their goodbye could be final. She whispered one word, one name. The name of the boy that had brought back her voice. The name of the man who had inspired her to speak again, even after all she had been through. The man she owed so much to, who she refused to let go of. The man she loved.

"...Edward..."

The golden hall shone brilliantly around the man. It was here that everything had happened. Where their dreams had crashed into nothing, where they had given everything and lost everything. It was here, in this hall, that he had perished. His life taken by the creature Envy during their fight. And it was here that his brother had died, sacrificing his own life to revive him.

The golden-haired man took a look around, making sure everything was in place. The massive transmutation circle had been inscribed on the ground, waiting to be used. He wouldn't let this be the end. He wouldn't let his brother be dead. He was going to do whatever it took. Give whatever it took. He took a moment, casting his gaze towards his right arm, and the small transmutation circle written on it. He had drawn circles on his arms, his legs, and his chest, in preparation to use his own body, his own life, to bring back his brother. His mind lingered for a moment on his right arm, now flesh and bone. His brother's sacrifice had reconstructed his body complete, rebuilt him whole. Now...it was time to do the same for him.

The man, Edward Elric, took a deep breath. Only 17 years old now, he stood in the center of the circle, the most versatile alchemist in the known world. All he needed to do was to bring his hands together, to form the energy bond that most require a circle to create, then press his hands to what he needed to transmute. In this case, that would be himself. "Al..." he whispered softly in the dark, quiet room. His brother's name, for whom he was doing this.

As he readied himself to begin, however, he heard a voice break the silence. "Edward!" it screamed through the hall, that soft, feminine voice he had come to know. The beautiful voice he had inadvertently awakened from its traumatized slumber. The voice stayed his hand a moment, as he turned to face its source. Barechested, it wasn't hard for her to see what he had drawn on himself.

There, in the doorway leading into this grand hall, was a beautiful girl, with soft, dark skin like melting chocolate, and soft, brown hair with pink bangs. She stood, shrouded in white, clutching her sleeping baby to her chest. Ed saw her, meeting her scared eyes with his for only a moment, before he turned away. "Rose...I told you to get out of here."

"Edward..." her voice carried her worry, her concern. She stepped slowly towards him, into the hall. She had seen the kinds of circles that he had written on himself, and it frightened her. She didn't understand alchemy, she barely had a grasp of it, but she knew that something bad was happening. "What's going on, Ed? What are you doing?" Her voice trembled as she spoke, and her arms clutched that precious baby as close to her as she could. There was no denying that she was frightened.

"Rose..." Ed was lost for what to say to her. How could he explain what he was trying to do here? How could he make her realize what had to happen? "I told you to get out of here. I don't want you to see–"

"See what, Ed?" Rose's voice carried terror now. He was confirming her deepest fears. "What are you trying to do here!"

Ed sighed. He knew she wasn't going to leave, that there was no getting around this. "I'm going to bring him back. Al...he shouldn't be gone. He shouldn't have died. I'm going to bring him back, no matter what the cost."

Rose's eyes filled with horror. "You can't...you can't mean that..."

"I know," Ed continued. "I know how to do it. He can still be saved, there's not much time, but...but I can–"

"Can what!" Rose practically screamed at him. Her fear was slowly fading into anger. "Can throw away everything he died for!"

"Rose..."

"Al gave his life for you." Rose's tone softened, pleading. "He died so that you could live."

"And now it's my turn to do the same," Ed's voice hardened. He was becoming defensive, Rose could see that. But she knew she had to push harder. She had to make him see. This was the effort, something inside her realized. She had to give everything she had, if she was going to get what she wanted back for it.

"Do you really believe that would make him happy?" Rose asked her question without hesitation. She hadn't known these brothers long, and the times they'd had were short. But she did know one thing: all each cared for was the other. Ed had lived to try and save Al. Al had lived to try and save Ed. That's all either of them had cared about, that much was made plainly obvious to her on that fateful day back in her home town of Liore. "Al died so that you could live. That's what he wanted, more than anything else. He wanted you to live. He wanted you to have your arm and leg back, and now you do. He wanted to help you. If you throw away everything he died for, do you really think he'll be happy? Or will he do everything in his power, to do the same thing for you?"

"Rose..." Ed was struck speechless. He was trying to argue, but he couldn't help feeling the tears welling up inside him. "He...I have to...Rose, I have to do this..."

"For him, Ed? Or for you?" Rose hit the nail on the head with her words. Ed took a step back, his mind struggling with what she was saying. "Don't make his death meaningless, Ed. He wouldn't want that. I don't think he could ever be happy, if you so callously threw away what he died to give you."

Ed could feel the tears begin to come out. He closed his eyes, trying to get away, but he couldn't fight it. "He was my brother, Rose...I need him. I can't do this without him, I can't."

Rose stepped slowly forward, her eyes fixed on Ed. Her mind kept replaying the strength he had once given her, the words he had said to her. "You have to, Ed. It's what he would want."

"WHAT DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DO!" Ed shouted suddenly, and his voice caught Rose by surprise. He was crying now, there was no hiding that. "My brother's gone, Rose. Gone! Everything we've worked for these past seven years is GONE! What am I supposed to do!"

"Walk on your own." He found himself blindsided by these words, as she spoke them. His eyes opened wide, recognizing not just the tone, but the words themselves. These were the words he had once told her, on that fateful day in Liore. "Move forward. You've got your own legs, now, Edward. So get up and use them." Her words resonated within Ed. His eyes closed tightly as he fell to his knees, crying softly. And it was only a moment before she was there, holding her baby with her left arm, while she wrapped her right around his neck, holding him close to her as he cried.

"Al..." he sobbed softly into her shoulder. "...I'm sorry, Al..."

"It'll be okay," Rose whispered, trying to comfort him. Her fear faded, but was quickly replaced by sorrow. "It'll be okay." She had saved the man she cared so much for, saved him from making a horrible mistake. Now, as she felt her own tears beginning to come, she could join him. Together, they could mourn.


	2. Chapter 1: Setting the Pieces

**Chapter One: Setting the Pieces**

It had been four years since that fateful day in the dead city beneath Central. The civil war that gripped the nation of Amestris had long since come to an end, and the State was beginning to rebuild. The reconstruction in Central had completed itself, and the insurgent force under the command of Brigadier General Mustang had been reintegrated into the military. So much had changed since then.

The office of fuhrer was no longer available. Control of the military had instead been handed to the Parliament, in order to ensure that another misuse of power such as the one Fuhrer Bradley had terrorized the East with never happened again. However, for a small town called Rizenpool, most of the nation's changes did not affect them. Or so they thought.

"EDWARD! You get up THIS INSTANT!" Her voice echoed through the house, carrying with it the harsh, angry tone of a delicate flower holding a chainsaw. With her long, blonde hair tied back into a golden ponytail, and her tender, blue eyes carrying her look of frustration, she was at the same time a dream and a nightmare. Winry Rockbell, 22, stood over the sleeping form of Edward Elric, 21, as he slumbered in his guest bedroom down in the basement of the Rockbell home.

"Fine," she scowled, before turning to head back upstairs. "You probably can't hear me because your ears are so low to the ground," she tossed at him, an evil grin on her face as she walked away.

As predicted, her ears were soon assaulted by his voice, "WHO ARE YOU CALLING A MOUSE SO SMALL HE CAN BUILD HIS HOME IN AN ANTHILL!"

Try as she might, Winry couldn't keep a barely-contained laugh from spilling out through her lips. "Thought that'd get ya." She turned back to look at him, a delicate smile crossing the face that just moments before he been crossed in frustration. "Now get up. You're supposed to go see Al today, remember?"

With a sigh, Ed forced himself out of his bed. There was an unnoticeable difference in his stature as he stood from the soft place of comfort, where his sins faded in the embrace of sleep. He had grown two inches in the last four years, and finally had to consign himself to the fact that he was going to be short all his life. He hesitated a moment, bringing his right hand up to rub the bridge of his nose. "Alphonse..." the name slipped through his lips, quietly, as he took his hand away. His eyes locked on it, once more, as they had so many times before. The flesh he'd been given in the exchange.

Winry just smiled, looking down at Ed. "You're going to be late, and Al's been looking forward to this." She laughed, lightly, for only a moment. "He says you don't spend enough time with him."

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"Sir, you don't have to do this. You know that. There are others who could–" Major Riza Hawkeye found herself cut off before she could even finish her sentence. As the sound of hooves filled the carriage, that voice she had followed for so long filled her ears. The powerful sound of a man who knew what he was doing, and knew how it needed to be done.

"No, Major. It needs to be me. Besides, it's been...what? Two years since we've last seen Alphonse? Three?" General Roy Mustang shot Hawkeye a pointed look, and she knew this wasn't his real reason. She knew him well enough to see through his excuses. "Aren't you curious to see him again?"

Hawkeye sighed, knowing she wouldn't get more than that out of the general. She could see through him like a glass window, but it was always so difficult to tell what was going on inside. For Riza, these past four years had flown by only too fast. She remembered, back then, she had thought for sure they were done with the military, that they would never be taken back in. But when Fuhrer Bradley's crimes were released to the public, by some swift work from Sheska.

She had once thought that they would be lucky not to go to jail, having attacked and murdered the fuhrer in his own home. She had sat so patiently by Mustang's bedside as he recovered from the battle, every day waiting for the military to come take them into custody. But that day never came. Instead, they were visited by Sheska, who came at them in a flurry of good news. The military was reinstating them, after going over the evidence she'd managed to gather against the fuhrer. With everything Sheska had managed to put together on the war in Ishbal, the war in Liore, and the records she'd been able to recreate from the incident in Lab 5, Parliament had been left with no choice but to find Fuhrer Bradley guilty, post-mortem, of treason against the very nation he ran. With this victory by the brilliant bookworm, the Parliament had reached the decision that Mustang's actions were justified. So now, here they sat on this long carriage ride, headed out to Rizenpool. It was time to see about a stray dog that had some time ago ran away.

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"Where are you off to so fast?" Ed was caught halfway out the door, by Aunt Pinako. The old lady was probably the only person Ed knew that was shorter than he was. Her shriveled, wrinkled form carried within it a woman who had lived a long time, and knew much of the ways of the world.

As soon as he'd hustled Winry out of the room, he'd gotten himself dressed as fast as he could in the black pants and vest he typically wore around the house. After throwing on his red coat, he had tried to scramble out the door before he could be seen up. He wanted to get down to the river, where he knew she was waiting for him.

Pulling himself back in the door and cursing to himself mentally, Edward ran his hand along the back of his head while trying not to grin. "I promised Al I'd spend time with him today. I just thought, if I hurried..."

Pinako was never a fool, though. She could read that boy like a book since he was 5 years old. "You were in a hurry to meet Rose, weren't you?" After a few seconds passed, when Ed couldn't manage a proper response, Pinako smiled and shook her head. "You could have said hi to her at breakfast if you didn't sleep in so much."

Ed sighed, looking back out the door at the road leading down to the river. "I'm sorry, Aunt Pinako." Before he could say any more, he heard her voice. The wisdom carried in it was unmistakable, though he often found it hard to listen. Here was a woman who had grown to understand much in her long life, but what he heard was never easy to listen to.

"Edward," she started. "It's been two years since you came back from Central, and you still haven't found something to do with your life. You can't stay where you are forever. I know you miss your brother, but you have to move on. Maybe your adventuring days are over, Edward, but you still have your own life to live. Please, for your sake and for the people that care about you, you need to start living again."

Edward sighed. Pinako had given him that talk so many times, and still, it was hard to accept. "I know..."

"Edward, both my granddaughter and that nice young woman, Rose, have offered to help you rebuild your home. I think that would be a good first step for you to take." The home to which she referred, Ed knew well. Eleven years before, his brother and he had left Rizenpool to become State Alchemists. On that day, they had burned down the family home, as a symbol to represent that they could never come home again. They had been wrong, but the house was still burnt to ash.

Ed sighed. He knew she was right, but it was hard to bring himself to admit it. "Yeah...okay. I'll talk to Rose about it."

"Good," Pinako smiled. "Now then, you don't want to keep Al waiting, do you?"

"No," Ed nodded his head. "I don't. And thank you, Aunt Pinako. I'll talk to Rose about it today." But before he could slip out the door, she caught him with her voice again.

"Oh, and one more thing," Pinako started. "Women don't like to be kept waiting forever, Edward. If you wait too long to get something you know you want, you might just find it isn't there to get anymore. Remember that."

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As soon as she heard the door close, Winry hurried back towards her room. She had perched like a hawk at the top of the stairs when she heard Ed and Pinako talking. She had meant to go with Ed, out to the river to see Al, but after hearing that conversation, she was too angry to go anywhere.

"I can't believe that jerk..." she muttered to herself as she paced to her room, fuming in anger at the words she'd caught from Ed. "I'll ask Rose, he says. Rose, Rose...I'm RIGHT UP HERE!" In her rage, she slammed her bare foot against a wrench that sat on the floor of her bedroom. She immediately regretted that, as the wrench flew a couple feet, and she fell down holding her foot from the pain of her toes meeting the cold metal.

As she sat on the floor, fuming her rage while trying to massage the pain out of her foot, Winry heard the voice again. The same familiar voice that she had heard so often over the past year. Oftentimes she thought it was just a figment of her imagination, and she knew it was probably meant she was going insane if she'd started hearing and seeing things. But then, there were others, times when she really believed in it. When she needed to believe in it, she needed to believe that she did have someone there for her, a friend who would look out for her when she needed it. "He's gone to her again, hasn't he?" The deep, feminine voice was one she had grown accustomed to. She appeared whenever Winry found herself at her wit's end.

"Yeah," Winry scowled. She didn't even look this time. She no longer needed to. She could feel the presence behind her, and it made her feel comfortable. A woman, with pale white skin, dressed in a tight, black skirt and black tank, crouched down behind Winry and put one arm over her shoulder. Winry could feel the woman behind her, and it made her feel better. She knew the face, the dark, red hair that curled under her ears, and she could feel the arm that now ran around her shoulders, pulling her in closer. It made her feel better when this mystery woman appeared. Sometimes, it seemed she was Winry's only friend.

"Winry...Winry, you need to start standing up to him more." The woman's deep voice spoke softly, almost soothingly. It helped the young girl's ears to hear it. "You of all people should know that. You know what you want Winry, and I'm sure you have what it takes to get it. You just have to be strong."

Winry narrowed her eyes, letting her anger guide her. "I HAVE been being strong. Have you not SEEN me being strong!" She yelled in frustration, then immediately caught herself. Slipping her hand over her lips, she glanced her eyes slowly back towards the door. A second passed. Another. After the third, she breathed a sigh of relief. "Look, it's bad enough I'm sitting here talking to someone I'm not even sure exists. I don't need you criticizing me too, especially when I don't see what you think I could be doing better." She sighed, waiting only a moment before she continued. "I've done everything I could think of. He still pushes me away. He's always pushed me away, ever since he left with his brother on that stupid trip!" She clenched her fists in anger, her mind remembering how it hurt that day, when she and her grandma found the Elric Brothers' house burned to the ground. "They never even said goodbye."

Winry felt her tears slowly drip down her face, and she clenched her eyes shut to try and stop them. She didn't want to cry here, not in front of her friend, but to her surprise, the pale woman reached her hand over and delicately wiped away the tears, using her first finger. "Shhhhh..." she whispered softly into Winry's ear, and the sound made her attempt a smile. "It'll be okay. I promise. I know it hurts now, but don't be afraid. You have friends who are watching out for you. You're a very special girl, Winry Rockbell."

Winry couldn't help but smile at that praise. "You'd better believe it," she smirked, before she heard a knock on her bedroom door. She froze for a second, uncertain, then her grandmother's voice pierced the silence.

"Winry? Who are you talking to?"

Winry shot a look back behind her, but there was nothing there. The mystery woman was gone, if she had ever even been here in the first place. The room was as silent and empty as it had always been, and she sighed. "No one, grandma. Just talking to myself."

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Ed ran down the path towards the river as fast as his legs would carry him. It felt so good to run again, to feel both his legs kicking himself down the road, rather than the cold metal automail he had worn before. His body had been restored for four years, but every time it felt like the first again.

As he raced down along the side of the river, his mind found itself preoccupied by what Aunt Pinako had said. She was right, and he knew it. He really did have to find something new to do with his life, but he could never find what. After the adventures he'd had with Al...what was there left for him? His mind shot to Rose, for a moment, but he shook off that thought.

What had Aunt Pinako meant, though, about women not liking to wait? What woman was she talking about? And what were they waiting for? He sighed and slowed his pace to a walk. He'd never get it, he knew that. Why couldn't she have just come out and said what she meant? The cryptic old bat was beginning to drive him nuts!

"Hey!" he called down the shore, and a smile crossed his lips. He loved this spot, where he used to spar with his brother. And there, sitting on the shoreline, pushing a stick around in the water, was Alphonse. Probably trying to catch a bug or something. As Ed lowered his eyes to look at the kid, he found his mind wandering back to that day, four years ago. He remembered so vividly, the look on Rose's face as they came out of the dead city.

She had finally decided on a name for her baby, as they were walking back together. It had taken her a long time, but as they walked back towards the stairwell that led back up into Central, she had told him she was going to name her baby Alphonse. It was in honor of his brother, who had died to give him the life she had argued so hard to keep with him.

And now, there he was. Little Alphonse Thomas, playing by the river. Ed knew his mother wouldn't be far, so he figured he'd see her soon enough if he just went straight for the kid. "Hey Al!" He raised his right hand to greet the kid, but clearly waving wasn't enough. The moment the child's eyes locked on Edward, he took off, running straight for him.

"Uncy Ed!" the kid exclaimed, before jumping up into Ed's arms.

Ed caught little Al in his arms, then smiled. "Hey, kid. Where's your mom?" Little Al reminded him only a little of his own little brother, the child's namesake, when he was young. He had soft, brown skin like his mother's, and dark brown hair that his mother, Rose, kept short.

"Mommy 'ad to wun to town fow gwocewies," the kid smiled. "She said to wait 'ere fow Uncy Edwawd."

Ed smiled, looking at the kid. "Alright, Al. Guess we should wait here for her. So, tell me," he put down little Alphonse, "what have you been up to? I saw you pushing that little stick around..."

Al quickly ran back to the stick, as though he'd suddenly remembered something important. "I was catching fishy. I saw big men do it, and–uncy Ed?" The kid's face began to tremble, as though he'd just seen something scary. "Who awe those people?"

Al was clearly looking at someone behind Ed, which caused him to turn around. His face hardened as soon as he saw them, walking down the path towards the riverside. They looked to be coming from the house, and he could only guess at what they were here for. One man, with short, black hair. One woman with blonde hair that she kept tied up in the back. Mustang and Hawkeye.

"They're...acquaintances," Ed responded, before looking back at the kid. "Stay here, okay? I'll be back soon. Just...play with your stick, or something. This won't take long." Leaving the kid behind, he headed back up the path towards the two soldiers staring him down. He wanted to catch them before they were within earshot of little Al.

Ed sighed as he approached. He didn't know why they were here but he knew it couldn't be good. Nothing good ever came of talking to Mustang, and frankly, he had thought he was done with it when he'd left Central. "Alright, Mustang, what is it this time? I already told you I'm done. I'm not going to sit back and grow more and more apathetic while learning how to justify murdering innocent civilians. I'm not your dog anymore."

"I know," Mustang responded, with a cold, calculated voice. His voice sent a small chill down Ed's spine. He'd heard that tone many a time before. "That's why I'm here, Edward. I have a proposition for you."


	3. Chapter 2: The Stray Dog

**Chapter Two: The Stray Dog**

"Edward? Are you okay?" He should have known. As he stood in the grass by the riverside, fists clenched in anger, he cursed himself for not realizing. Of course it wouldn't be that easy. Nothing was ever that easy. "Edward?" The soft, delicate voice of a tender, blossomed Rose stroked the young alchemist's ears, calling his attention back to her. He wanted to turn, wanted to look at her, but he couldn't muster the strength. Not after that, not after what had just gone down. "Is something wrong?" He could feel her eyes on the back of his head, and he knew he couldn't face her now.

"Tell Al..." he managed to get out, without even turning back to look at her. "Tell him I'm sorry. I can't keep my promise, not today...maybe not at all." His fists were clenched so tight, they were beginning to bleed. "I'm sorry, Rose. I have to go back to Central."

"Ed, talk to me." Rose's voice quivered with uncertainty. She had heard this tone of voice before, and she had never enjoyed it. She could hear his cold, distant matter-of-fact statements, and she knew they were never a sign of good. The voice speaking to her now, she remembered so distinctly as the voice that said farewell so many times before. She knew he was moments away from cutting her out of his life again, and that thought frightened her. "Edward, please...tell me what's going on." Reaching out her hand, Rose gently wrapped it around his right. She tried everything she could to sound strong, but inside, she was afraid.

Her fears were confirmed only a moment later, when Ed pulled his hand from her grasp. He shot his gaze back at her just once, as he ripped himself free from her gentle caress, and in that moment, she saw the pain in his eyes. There was hurt there, and it made her ache inside. There was sorrow, loss...so many conflicted feelings that she knew were only causing him more pain. But she only saw it once, before he turned and ran from her. "I'm sorry," he whispered to himself through gritted teeth. He should have known. He would never be free.

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"I won't become your dog again." Edward's voice carried with it his determination. He would not let the military pull his strings anymore. Not after the things he'd seen, not after the disaster in Liore...he was done with their whole corrupt mockery of order.

"Just as headstrong as ever." Ed easily noticed the standard stoic, neutral texture to Mustang's voice. The colonel spoke with a cautious tone that never betrayed his true intentions. It made him a very dangerous man to make any deal with. "I'm here because I need you, Edward. We need you."

"For what!" Edward attacked. "So that you can slap the name of the Fullmetal Alchemist back down onto your payroll, and get a nice, comfy promotion? I'm not playing your games any more, colonel. I'm not listening to greedy, power-hungry jerks speak through you any more."

"General," Mustang corrected, and it was that word that caught Ed's attention. "And I would watch myself if I were you. You are speaking to one of those greedy, power-hungry jerks."

"General?" the young alchemist questioned. His face betrayed his curiousity for only a moment, before he looked away and smirked. "Well, I suppose you must have done plenty of kissing up to get that spot."

"Look, Ed," Mustang ignored the obvious bait, "I'm not here for anyone else. I'm not here because someone told me to be here. I'm here because I need you back, not because someone else told me to come find you. The military needs the Fullmetal Alchemist. That is a point I am not willing to compromise. There are some in the Parliament that don't see eye to eye with me on this, but I want you back in our ranks."

"Uh-huh," Ed had already begun to grow bored of this discussion. There really was only one thing left: it was time to end this talk and send Mustang on his way. "Look, I already gave you my answer. I'm not what you're looking for. I won't sit back and blindly follow orders, col–general. I'm not going to stand by and let another massacre like Liore happen, and I'm certainly not going to take any part in it. I won't bloody my hands for your sake."

Ed started to turn away, intending to end this discussion, but was surprised to hear Mustang's response. The general's words piqued his curiosity. Looking back, he supposed that was probably why he stayed and listened. "That is exactly why I want you back."

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"Massh tatoes!" Lunchtime had come, and much of the household was now gathered around the table. Little Alphonse was busy with his hands, trying to mold his mashed potatoes up into what looked to the others like some sort of tower.

Rose watched her child for a few seconds, before motherly instinct kicked in. "Al, don't play with your food," she tried to get out through a suppressed smile, but for her attempt, she got nothing in return. She and Al had been staying here, at the Rockbell residence, since she came back with Edwards two years back. Until then, they'd stayed in Central. She had followed him back, partly out of not having anywhere else to go and partly because she wanted to come with him, but nothing had worked out the way she had hoped since then.

Winry took the seat across from Rose, but it was not hard to tell her mind was preoccupied. With her fork delicately resting in her right hand, she stirred her food, not really touching it. It wasn't hard to tell that there was something resting on her mind, but the question of what went unasked. Rose was busy with her son, and with her own emotional baggage she was trying not to bring to mind.

Aunt Pinako sat at the head of the table. It was not difficult for her to tell that there was something wrong, but just what it was, no one was willing to say. Rose had come in with a decent enough smile on her face, but it was easy enough to tell that she was just trying to be strong. Something had happened, Pinako knew this, but the young woman was not saying anything, and she felt it better not to press it.

There was a noticeable absence in the chair where Edward usually sat. Pinako could guess at what this meant: he had gone away again. This would explain the morbid atmosphere that surrounded the girls, even through their best attempts to hide it. But Winry took Pinako by surprise. If Ed had gone somewhere, why wasn't she rushing off to follow? Unless she didn't know? Well...Pinako supposed there was no place to go by guessing.

"Here, Al, eat your food. Like this." Rose had reached over to gently press the handle of a fork into her son's hand. That little child meant the whole world to her, everyone knew this. As Pinako watched, a smile slowly slipped over Rose's face, while she wrested the fork down into the potatoes, then up into little Al's mouth. Even in the darkest of times, she could find comfort in her precious little boy.

"So," Pinako finally made the choice to ask. "Where has Edward run off to this time?" The scowl on Winry's face hardened at the question. She had her suspicions, but it seemed they were about to be addressed.

Rose looked up from her son, leaving him to eat by himself. She knew he'd never do that, but her mind was suddenly elsewhere. She looked at Pinako for only a second, before her eyes shifted to the empty chair. She felt a pang inside, a dull ache that wouldn't fade, which forced her to look away from the chair after a couple seconds. "He's...he said he was leaving. Back to Central. I guess...I don't know. Maybe he's looking for something."

"That jerk," Winry muttered. Stirring her mashed potatoes with her fork, she found she still couldn't muster an appetite for them. "Didn't even say goodbye...again! He never says goodbye. He just runs off and expects us all to wait here for him to come back." She raised her voice, going into an angry rage before taking a deep breath and calming herself back down. "I'm sorry." She had thought those days were over, when he came back to Rizenpool. Apparently, she had been mistaken.

"Uncy Ed?" Little Al looked up from his potatoes. The tension across the table was thick enough that even a child could see it, but he didn't understand where it had come from. "Where's Uncy Ed?"

Rose lowered her hand softly to her child's head, comfortingly stroking her beloved son. "Don't you worry, he'll be back soon. He just...I think he just had some things to go take care of. He'll come back to us."

"Yeah, sure," Winry scowled. "Current record is three years." Rose looked at her now, and she found herself starting to understand Winry better. She saw the anger that raged on the outside, that Winry struggled to keep in check. And as she looked, she came to see deeper than that. She had seen Winry get angry so many times in the past two years, and she never could understand what could drive her that far. But this time, as she looked into those sapphire eyes, she understood. Because those were not eyes of hate or anger. They were not eyes of malice, as could be easily mistaken from a distance. Staring into them, Rose could see the tears she was struggling not to form. Those were eyes of hurt, of betrayal. Eyes of pain. And as she looked down at her precious son, picking at his food, she began to feel more kindred to the angry girl. For, in the end, they really were not so different. Two hopeful romantics chasing after an elusive hero.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

"That is exactly why I want you back." General Mustang's voice carried a hint of authority, mixed with a certain sincerity that caught Edward by surprise. The familiar smirk on the general's face didn't do much for negotiations, but now he had at least piqued the young alchemist's curiosity.

"You're going to have to run that by me again," Ed pressed. "You want me to come to Central because I WON'T follow orders?" He was beginning to question the general's mental condition at this point. Perhaps he had struck his head one too many times in the battle with Pride, which the general was still reluctant to speak about.

"Edward," Mustang started, "Times are changing. The State military has come under new rulership, and we need people who are not afraid to challenge their orders. You know as well as I do that the crimes committed in Ishbal and Liore were manufactured in order to oppress the people without making us look like the bad guy. I want to avoid another such incident."

"Then here's a thought," Edward retorted. "Why not stop poking the national nose into everybody's business? We can take care of ourselves just fine."

Mustang sighed. He was getting nowhere. "Look, Ed, the military needs people like you. Yes, maybe sometimes the people can take care of themselves, but what are they to do the next time a Homonculus decides to play with their politics? What are they supposed to do about the next Cornello that comes along?" The name of Cornello struck a nerve with Ed. The false prophet had misguided the people of Liore into starting a rebellion, which led the military into taking drastic action in their city. All of which had been set up by the Homonculi Pride and Envy. And for their desire for the Philosopher's Stone, they had not cared about the people that would be crushed in the process. Hurting, killing, torturing civilians, and everyone was to blame. Cornello for causing the resistance and the military for the crimes they committed against the people. And for this conflict, Rose had suffered.

Ed's fists clenched in anger. Cornello's name had reminded him of everything that the military had done to that city. Everything that Rose had been put through, tortured, interrogated...he couldn't even imagine what she had gone through, but he knew it was traumatic enough to leave her mute when she was released. They had done it all, and worse, they had lied to him. If he had only known...maybe he could have done something. But he didn't. They wouldn't let him. "Look, Captain Sarcasm, I'm not doing this again. I'm not opening another city up for your military to terrorize."

Mustang sighed, his hand climbing up to his forehead to gently massage it. "Look, Edward, I need you to reconsider this, rationally. Are you going to see eye to eye with me, or shall I have Major Hawkeye fetch you a stool?" The crack was too obvious, and it only served to fuel Ed's anger.

"You know what?" Ed scoffed. "I'm done with this. I'm done with you. I'm not having this conversation anymore, Mustang. I have people I need to look after. And I've got a house to rebuild." With those words, Ed turned away from Mustang, walking back towards Al. He'd made up his choice. To hell with Mustang and the military. To hell with false, misleading orders intended to cause suffering in the people. He was going to go rebuild his house. Rose had offered to help him do it, hadn't she? He might as well take her up on that offer. Who knows, maybe she and Al would move in there once the place was reconstructed.

"Ed." Mustang put his hand down on Ed's shoulder, to stop him from walking away. "I want you back because I trust you to do what's right. I know you've had a bad history with the military, and that's why I trust you. I need someone who will not follow an order that he knows he shouldn't. You remember what happened to the Rockbells?"

Ed's face contorted in anger. He remembered exactly what had happened to the Rockbell doctors in Ishbal, Winry's mother and father. He knew only too well. "You murdered them." Fists clenched in anger, he struggled to see what Mustang's point was. Why bring them up?

"Exactly," Mustang responded. "I need someone who would not repeat my mistakes. I believe that someone is you, Edward." His cold, stoic voice betrayed no hint of emotion. Ed was struck, for a moment, trying to figure out whether this was really his agenda, or if he was simply trying to mislead him again.

"I won't be your dog." Ed repeated those words, though his voice quivered with uncertainty.

"Liore was doomed to happen." There was a certainty in Mustang's voice that confused Ed. "Liore didn't happen because we sent you there, Ed. The reason I wanted you in that city was to keep a rebellion like that from taking place. Because I remembered Ishbal. I didn't want a repeat of that disaster. Liore didn't happen because you were there, it happened because the prophet came back. Liore happened because the disaster I sent you there to avert happened nonetheless."

"What's your point?" All this talk of Liore was making Ed angry. He still remembered so vividly, the pain he had seen in Rose's eyes. The hurt that made everything within him ache.

Mustang sighed. His hand slowly, gently let go of Ed's shoulder. Their meeting was coming to a close. "I need you to keep that from ever happening again. Because I trust you to do that better than anyone else in the military. Major Hawkeye and I are going back to Central, Edward. Tomorrow, measure will be taken for isolating and bring in insurgent criminals in civilian areas. The kind we can't simply forget. I would appreciate it if you would be a part of that."

"And if I refuse?" Edward scowled.

Mustang turned to walk away, signaling Hawkeye with his fingers. "Then I hope you can live with yourself, if another disaster like Liore happens while you sat back and refused to do a thing about it. I know you, Ed. I know you better than you care to admit. And I know there has to be something that drives you. Perhaps a certain desert rose that needs someone like you to protect it." Ed's eyes widened at the mention. Fists clenched in anger, he couldn't find it within himself to respond. "I'll see you in Central," the general left him, before following Hawkeye back up the road.

Ed turned back, looking for him, looking for them. He didn't know what to say, what to do. He was beaten, and he knew it. He should have known better, but he didn't. He should have known the military would never let him go, never set him free. He was nothing more to them than a stray dog, and now they had come to collect. He should have known. And as he stood there, fists clenched in anger, he heard a familiar voice, a soft, sensitive voice behind him, filling his ears. "Edward? Are you okay?"


	4. Chapter 3: Memories of the Fallen

**Chapter Three: Memories of the Fallen**

"Ow!" Edward yelped, from a particularly nasty bump in the road. He was starting to remember why he hated these stupid carriages. Compared to these things, the train was a luxury! He had ridden this road before, the last time he was here. But it had been years, he had almost forgotten what it was like out here. And had he remembered how much he hated carriages, he probably would've just walked.

The train wasn't coming until late this evening, and he still had plenty of time to kill. So, Ed had decided, why not go visit some old friends? It could be nice to pave a trail back down memory lane. Not only that, but it would definitely be interesting to see how things had changed; it had been ten years since he'd come down this familiar road.

Riding in this bumpy carriage, he remembered the last time he'd been down this way. He had taken his brother Al, still recently bonded to a steel suit of armor, to look into an alchemist who went by the name of Majahal. Supposedly, Majahal wrote the book on human transmutation. Additionally, the man knew his father, Hohenheim of Light. Ed hadn't been certain if it was morbid curiosity or the faint hopes that Majahal would be able to help put Al back into his human body that had driven him to seek him out, but either way, he had found his way to Majahal's little home town.

Things, however, had not turned out as Ed could have hoped. Majahal was a psychopath, bonding the souls of young girls from around the village to mannequins constructed to resemble a woman named Karin, who Majahal was certain had perished. Though the woman still lived, Majahal was simply too insane to care for her, now that she was in her old age, and had instead chosen to die pursuing a fantasy.

Majahal had been the first crack in Ed's fantasy of alchemy. The first time he had truly seen the horrors it could bring. He had learned many lessons that day, and still had many more to come. Shou Tucker, Scar, the Philosopher's Stone, the Homonculi themselves...the wars in Ishbal and Liore...so many ways that alchemy could go so horribly wrong. As a boy, he believed in alchemy as a wonderful gift, a truly benevolent thing. It was the science that made you feel like you were magic. But he had grown up since then, and he knew better now. Alchemy, like any other force in existence, had the potential to be both a gift and a curse. It could be used to save lives, or it could be used to destroy them. A blessing and a weapon, at the same time.

And, as Majahal had been the first to show him, it could so easily corrupt. Alchemy was an incredible power. It had the power to do great things, but it also had the power to grant false promises. It could delude a man into believing he could go so far as to bring back the dead. Ed knew this one personally, and when he thought about it, it caused him to wince for a moment. He cast a forlorn gaze at the empty seat across from him, where ten years before, his little brother Alphonse had sat. Alchemy, Ed concluded, was both the greatest of tools, and the greatest of illusions.

"AHHHHHHH!" Ed bolted up in his seat, as the carriage came to a sudden stop. He had heard a shrill, feminine scream coming from outside the carriage, in the woods to the west. Before he knew what he was doing, the door was thrown open and he was out and running, whipping through the trees and hurrying deeper into the dark forest. The Fullmetal Alchemist had taken control, acting on pure instinct, and he was on his way to find the woman that had screamed.

"LET ME GO!" He was getting closer now, he could almost see them. A large, muscular man, with a black eyepatch over his right eye. Dressed in light green and brown, which Ed guessed was probably to blend in with the forest in the daylight. He had a young woman on the ground, holding her by the throat with his left hand, and brandishing a dagger in his right.

"Show me what you really are, demon!" the man shouted at her, the dagger held menacingly above. He looked as though he would strike without a moment's notice, and Ed knew he had to hurry.

"Please, I don't know what you're talking about," the woman whimpered, and as Ed drew closer, he could make her out. She had long, black hair, splayed against the ground, and silvery green eyes that quivered with fear. She wore a slick, black dress that was ripped and torn from what Ed assumed had been quite the struggle, which made him question just what this man had pulled her from. And the fact that she looked to be just exiting her teen years made him question the man's accusation.

"LIAR!" the enraged man roared. "I KNOW IT WAS YOU, BITCH! The rest may not believe me, but I know." He raised the dagger to strike, and it was at that moment that Ed knew he had to act. Stopping just ten feet from the man and clapping his hands together in place of a transmutation circle, Ed slammed the his palms against the two trees he had slipped between. Branches from above were drawn into the trees in order to fuel the transmutation, as four branches whipped out and grasped him, pulling him back off the terrified young woman.

The man yelped in surprise as thick, wooden branches wrapped around his wrists and ankles, yanking him back off his feet. "Hey–the hell!" He snarled down at the young woman, while struggling against the natural bonds. "You did this, didn't you! You...you witch!"

"Calm down," Ed threw at him. "Yeesh, when you get going, you really don't stop, do you?" His familiar red coat whipped in the wind, as he stepped towards the young girl. "Hey, are you okay?" The frightened young thing must have been more afraid than he'd though. As he knelt down to talk to her, he couldn't help but notice that her skin was surprisingly pale. Yet...there was a certain familiarity to her that he was struggling to place.

"I..." she swallowed hard, trying to compose herself. "I think so. Thank you...um...thanks." Her eyes looked to the ground, and he could tell she was embarrassed. Clearly, she wasn't the type that enjoyed having to be rescued. Almost like...hey, wait a minute. The thought clicked in his mind right then, and it seemed to strike her as well. He saw her eyes run over his coat, over the black pants and vest, and his blond, braided hair. "...wait a minute..." he heard the recognition in her voice, and it was then he realized why she looked so familiar. "Edward?"

--------------------------------------------------

Having left the attacker behind, the two had begun their walk back to town. Ed figured by now that the carriage had left without him, but he knew they couldn't be far if she was here. "I can't believe it," she laughed, her voice carrying through the trees. "It's been...what, nine years?"

"Ten," Ed corrected, with a smile on his lips.

"Ten years...wow."

Ed couldn't believed he was staring at Klose! The long, slightly ruffled hair, the sparkling eyes, the dress...the DRESS! His eyes kept passing back to that, and remembering her the last time he'd been here. Baggy pants, baggy shirt, poofy little cap on her head... "Y'know, I said it last time I saw you, and I'll say it again. You're DEFINITELY much prettier when you don't dress like a paperboy."

The young woman, now 5'3", smiled down at him. "I'll take that as a compliment," she grinned.

Ed's eyes kept traveling back to her. "You've...um...you've definitely grown since last I saw you."

"Thanks," Klose smirked back at him. "And you've...um...you look...good." He still couldn't believe how much she had changed. The last time he'd been here, she was a just a scrawny kid with a nasty attitude towards everyone around her. Her sister had died recently, and she was taking it out on everyone. Rather than grieve, she seemed to be hiding her feelings under a mask of anger and malice, believing that a ghost had killed her sister. In actuality, however, her sister had been one of the seven girls that had fallen victim to the psychosis of Majahal.

In fact...now that Ed thought about it, something seemed wrong about her. "Are you okay?" he asked softly, trying to figure her out. She was acting TOO NICE, and now he was starting to get suspicious.

Klose just smirked, her eyes cast forward. "Don't worry about me, Ed. There's town. You should probably go on ahead, I'll...I'll catch up. There are some things I need to take care of." Ed felt one of his eyebrows lifting, as his suspicion began to rise.

"Okay..." he muttered, walking on ahead. "Um...I'll see you later?"

"Sure," Klose smirked, and he could see a glint in her eyes that spooked him. What was up with her?

--------------------------------------------------

Ed felt the ground with every step. He could feel each step under each of his boots, and it made him smile. He still hadn't gotten tired of that feeling in his left leg, of the sensations they gave him. This was so much better than automail. He felt...he felt complete, and that could put a smile on his face. At least, until he remembered the sacrifice that had given him that left leg and right arm.

But try as he might, he couldn't get himself too down about it. He remembered Rose's words from that day, four years ago, and he knew deep down that she was right. Al would want him to enjoy what he had given him. His brother wouldn't want him to depress himself over what happened, he would want him to move on. Still...he could be strong, for Al, but he would never forget. He knew that in his heart. He would never forget the brother he lost to his own youthful foolishness.

As he looked around the town, he noticed that not much had changed since the last time he'd been here. He wondered what had been done with old Majahal's place, once its psychopath was no longer among the living. He also wondered what–

"Hey!" He heard a voice from the left, which distracted him from his solemn walk. "Aren't you that Edward Elric fella?"

"Um..." Ed's face blanked for a moment. There was a man, dressed all in brown, with a thick, unshaven beard covering his face, and short, brown hair. "Yeah...yeah, that would be me...do I know you?"

"HEY EVERYBODY!" the man yelled out. "THE GHOST-KILLER'S BACK!" Ed's face blanked for a minute, lost in the sheer confusion, before he found himself lifted up by a crowd of ten or fifteen people. If he had been confused before, he didn't even know what to call himself now.

"Wait, wait, ghost killer?" Ed mumbled out, trying to get a clarification. But all he got were cheers from the disturbing people holding him up. "Hey, put me down, I'm trying to–HEY! WATCH YOUR HANDS!"

The man grinned, looking up at Ed hoisted above the gaggle. "We've heard all about your exploits, Fullmetal Alchemist. We've all been keepin' a close ear out for any word we could get on the ghost killer."

Ed struggled to speak while being handled by the crowd. "Ghost–what are you talking about? Ghost killer?"

The bearded man laughed at Ed's uncertainty. "You know what I'm talking about. Word has it, that psycho Majahal was makin' evil spirits up in his old place, 'fore you came 'round and whipped them all to pieces."

...well, the pieces were starting to come together. Ed guessed that what happened up at Majahal's must have slipped out. But those weren't ghosts he was making, and Ed hadn't really done much aside from...well, okay, he had killed Majahal, but it was an accident...kinda...

"What brings a famous guy like you back to our little haunt?" the bearded man asked.

Ed shrugged, not really sure himself. "Was waiting for the train to Central. I just figured it might be nice to take a trip back down. Speaking of which, anyone know where a woman named Klose has gone? We were talking just out in the woods, and–ACK!" He felt himself drop just then, the crowd letting go of him and letting him hit the ground. Everyone backed away, and he noticed their faces twisted now in an expression of what could either be described as hurt or anger. "Gah, what was that for!"

"That's not funny," the bearded man scolded. "We don't have much 'round these parts, but we don't need someone, not even the Ghost-Killer, coming 'round and rubbin' salt in old wounds." Ed could feel a definite menace in the man's voice, and began to crawl back when he recognized the hostility that was growing on the people's faces. "We're grateful for what you've done for us, Edward Elric. But at this point...I think it might be best for you to leave." That wasn't a suggestion, and Ed could tell. His eyes narrowed, trying to figure out what he had said to make such a sudden shift in these people's temperament, especially one that struck them all.

"Yeah, yeah, fine," he muttered. "I need to get back to my train, anyway."

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Grumbling to himself, Edward stepped back into the forest. That had certainly been a weird encounter, and he couldn't figure out what the heck had just happened back there. First they were cheering for him, then they were kicking him out. However...looking back, that seemed to be the story of his life. He couldn't remember a time when a crowd had gathered around him in awe, happiness, or some other great, happy emotion, that DIDN'T end in them throwing him out on his bum.

With a sigh, he consigned himself to the fact that some people are just moody. And, he knew, that was that. He would head back to the train and hopefully forget this stupid visit ever occurred. Besides, he needed to focus. Mustang probably had something up his sleeve, and he wanted to–

"Threw you out, huh?" There was her voice again, from his right. Turning towards the direction of the sound, he saw her again, the young woman Klose. "Probably should've warned you, but they're a bit grumpy. Especially after three years back."

"Three years..." Ed struggled with the date. Three years ago he had been in Central with Rose. They'd been staying in a dorm at the Central State Headquarters, while he watched out for politics. Mustang had done a lot of political back and forth then, but eventually he grew tired of it. Besides, Rose had been worried that Mustang's political attempts would backfire, and she'd be taken into military custody again. She was, after all, one of the leaders in the insurgency of Liore.

Klose just laughed at Ed's inability to place what she was talking about. "You weren't here, so don't feel bad about not knowing. C'mon, I got something to show you. Think you can keep up?" Without another word, she raced off into the trees. He turned to chase after, but felt something catch his foot, causing him to fall right on his face. By the time he was up, she was already gone into the distance, and he had to push himself to catch up.

"Come on!" she called back. "I thought MEN were supposed to be faster than that!" He could hear her laugh after making her crack, and it made him feel more secure. NOW she was acting like the Klose he'd known.

As he whipped through the trees, he saw her fading into the distance. How the heck could she run so fast! He pushed himself harder, refusing to lose her, while pushing his voice to call out at her. "Where are we going!" His response was only a laugh, however, which urged him to push harder.

"Don't feel bad!" she called back at him. "You're probably just having trouble because of your short legs!" Ed felt this one like a knife in his gut. Anger rose to his legs, pushing them like he'd never pushed them before, and he raced after her with every ounce of strength he could muster.

"I'LL SHOW YOU WHO'S SO SMALL HE COULD GET STUCK IN THE SOLE OF A BOOT!" he raged after her, but to no avail. He had lost her entirely. He slowed now, coming to a stop in the eerie, silent forest. Casting his head back and forth, looking for her, he found that he could see no trace of her.

But, before he could start to wonder which way she had gone, he heard her voice calling him from the left. "It's not far now, just hurry up!" He smirked, knowing he had caught her now. Racing back to the left, he pushed for more distance, as he entered a dark, shady area of the forest. There was an eerie quiet in this place, which took him by surprise. Even this far from a city, one could usually hear some noise. Birds chirping, squirrels chittering, wind blowing...something. But here...here there was nothing.

He slowed his pace, stepping silently into the small glade before him. The trees had opened up, and he found his eyes looking around at the branches above, trying to place it. Where were the animals? The birds...the anything? This place felt like a–

"WAGH!" For what felt like the umpteenth time, he felt his foot catch on something, and fell face first to the ground. This time, however, there was something to meet him as he fell, cracking against his head and leaving a splitting pain in his skull. Dust flew up where he struck, covering his clothes and nesting in his hair, as he tried to push himself up. What had–

His eyes fell on the object before him, and for a moment, he couldn't breathe. His mind took a moment, trying to register it, while his eyes and ears both strained to make sense of what lay before him. "We're here," he heard her say, but her voice felt so distant. This couldn't...this didn't make any sense. This couldn't be right, this just...no, it couldn't be. She was standing right there, ahead of him, in the forest. And for several minutes, he just stared, his mind struggling for anything it could find, any way to explain the horror before him.

R.I.P

Klose Silvermire

The greatest tragedy is an innocence lost before its time.

"What..." Any humor, any fun that he had found in the chase was lost, as he gazed upon the stone semicircle that lay before him. "What happened...what's going on?" Slowly, as he started to register it, he began to crawl back off the dirt beneath him, the moved, grassless dirt below; the space which he had come to realize was a grave.

His eyes passed up from the stone, to Klose, standing forty feet away, behind the grave. And as his eyes settled on her, he understood. To his horror, he understood. Because as she stood there, facing away, he could see the proof he didn't want to accept, the evidence that frightened him to the center of his being. Because right there, on the back of her neck, was a blood red tattoo of a circle, formed of a snake eating its own tail.

"Welcome to my grave, Edward." He heard her voice speak, but the tone was different. She had been so nice, so fun...but now, all he heard in her voice was malice. "This is what happens when you rely on people. I trusted you. You were my hero. You saved me from Majahal, and I let myself believe that you would be there." He heard her words, but he couldn't understand them. She wasn't...she was...was she? His mind, so briefly, flashed back to Sloth, and the memories she had claimed to have. There was an answer there, but he was trying to make sense of it. And this woman, this Klose, this...this Homonculus, as he had recognized she could be nothing else, was not helping to make things any clearer. "I trusted you, and you let me down. You let me die."

"Klose..." Ed struggled with his voice, struggled to make it speak. "What's going on? Why did you bring me here?"

"I brought you here because you deserved to know." The Homonculus turned back towards him; her eyes felt as though they were burning holes in his soul. "You deserved to see what you did, Edward. And I wanted to see the pain on your face when you found out. This isn't over between us, Ed. Believe me, you and I have only just begun. But this isn't the time." As he watched, the Homonculus, Klose, was engulfed in flames. His eyes widened, watching the fire burn all across her body, but she just stood there defiantly in the flame.

"I have new friends now, Edward." As she spoke, Ed felt something move behind him. He whipped around, trying to find it, but all he saw was air and trees. "They've taken me in, given me a home. My boss has even given me a new name, and y'know, I think I like him. He seems to hate you even more than I do." Ed's eyes were moving all over the place now, trying to find what he had felt behind him, while not forgetting the flaming form of Klose. "Go ahead, try it out for yourself. See how it feels on the tongue. My name, Ed. They call me Greed now."

Ed's mind had just finished registering that, when he felt something powerful strike him from behind. He felt something heavy strike the back of his head, and it was the last thing he felt before he hit the ground. "I'll see you later, Edward," he heard as his hearing began to fade. "_My valiant hero_," was the last to pass his ears before consciousness failed him.

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WHOOOOOOM!

The sound of the train snapped Edward awake from his slumber. As he lay on a cold, cement bench, just inside the train station, he found himself suddenly aroused by the booming sound of the train's horn. Spooked for only a second, he bolted up from his position to find his red coat draped over him like a blanket.

Immediately, his right hand moved up to his head, to massage his forehead. What was that, that just happened? Some horrible dream, or...no...as his hand moved, he felt something resting softly in it. Uncurling his fingers, he found a sight that filled him with dread. Clenched in his palm was the soft, wet bud of a white lily flower. The flower of death.

* * *

If there is an official last name for Klose, I would appreciate hearing it. Far as I'm aware, there isn't, so I kinda had to make one up for the tombstone. >.> 


	5. Chapter 4: Deranged Reflections

**Chapter Four: Deranged Reflections**

As the train rolled onwards, the young alchemist sat in silence. The train was every bit as sleek as ever, moving forward towards Central and propelling him back towards the fate he had tried so hard to break free of. He knew that Mustang was waiting at the other end, and for Edward Elric, this ride could take as long as it wanted to get him there.

He still didn't know quite what it was Mustang wanted of him. Why him, specifically? Why come all this way to rip him out of his lazy little town of Rizenpool? Mustang had more than a few men at his disposal. What did he need of Ed, that Major Armstrong - if he was still a Major at this point, and after hearing of Mustang and Hawkeye's promotions over the last four years, Ed wasn't entirely sure - couldn't provide?

Ed sighed. He was getting nowhere, this whole thing was just drawing him around in circles. But at least it was better than thinking about Klose, right? He still couldn't understand what had happened there. It had all happened too fast, he wasn't even sure if what he thought he had seen had been real. That tattoo on the back of Klose's neck, the Ouroborous, the snake that eats itself...it could only mean one thing.

No, Ed pulled back, he would not focus on this. It had been a dream, some horrible, stupid dream that had struck him while he was waiting for the train. Klose was doing just fine down in her own little village, and not stalking him with an ouroborous on her neck and flames burning all over her body. That...that was probably the result of hunger...or something. Ed felt his stomach rumble, realizing he had missed breakfast _and_ lunch.

With a sigh, Ed reflected that perhaps he shouldn't have rushed off the way he did. Would have been nice to stop and get some lunch before taking off, and he knew Winry was going to be upset to hear that he up and disappeared again. And Rose...he should have said more to Rose. He knew that. But what could he have said? What would she have accepted? He was...he was on his way back to the people that destroyed her hometown. The people that...no, he couldn't even think about that. Any time his mind passed over what they had done to her, what she'd been put through...any time he considered that, it filled him with a burning anger that he definitely didn't need right now.

"Rose..." Her name whispered across his lips, and he sighed. He couldn't help but feel as though he were betraying her by going back to Central. Today would have been the day, he knew it, today he would have turned his life around and gotten back on track. He would have rebuily his house, like Aunt Pinako had suggested, and he would...he would have...what? He would have what?

Ed's right hand crawled across his forehead, and he sighed. He didn't know what he would have done after that. What was there for him back in Rizenpool? Besides Winry, Rose, and Aunt Pinako, what did he even have back there? A house burned to ash and memories of his own stupid mistake? A home to rebuild, so that he could linger in the hallways and let the memories of the mother he tried to resurrect and the brother he killed in the process tear at his mind? Rebuild the house...he couldn't help but laugh. Rebuilding the house would be the worst thing he could ever do. Even if he did get the place reconstructed, he wouldn't be able to set foot in it without having to chase off the horrible memories.

Maybe, he wondered...maybe this wouldn't be so bad. Central did have those nice dorms, and he still hadn't read everything they had back in the State library. He knew people in Central, he knew General Mustang and Major Hawkeye, and then there were Ross and Bloch, if they were still there, and Armstrong...maybe everything would turn out just fine...

"...RRGH!" Ed's face contorted with anger and he grabbed his hair in frustration. "NO! THIS WILL NOT BE FINE!" He found himself standing on the seat of his booth in the train, fuming in anger. As he came down from his momentary flash of rage, he noticed several other passengers staring at him. "...um...nothing to see here..." he plopped quickly back down into his booth, trying his best not to look embarassed, while he folded his red coat over himself like a blanket.

A sigh of exasperation left Edward's lips. He knew he was walking into something bad, but what other choice did he have? What else could he do, sit back in Rizenpool, marry one of the girls, and become a farmer?

He could see it now, their own little house rebuilt from ash. Ed sitting in his big, brown chair, smoking a pipe. Dressed in a red bathrobe, and six feet tall, because as long as he was fantasizing, why not be tall? He could see Rose walking into the house, curling her long, tender arms around his neck and climbing up into his lap. He could almost feel the gentle, caressing texture of her hair, nestling softly against his chest, and feel the soft rise and fall of her breathing in his arms. "Oh, Ed," she would say, as he stroked his arms around her waist. "You're so brave and manly and so very, very tall."

"Why yes, I am very tall," he would say with a grin. "And I thank you for noticing!" And then they would kiss, and he would taste her sweet lips pressed against his own, in the soft, tender embrace of her arms. And then babies would appear. Many, many babies.

...now that Ed really thought about it...if you took out the crap about being tall, and the randomly appearing babies, that didn't actually sound so bad. And now he was confused.

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The only sound Winry could hear was the cranking of the wrench she held in her hands. As she sat fuming on her balcony, she tried her hardest to remain focused on the automail right leg she had on the balcony before her. She was doing everything in her power to not lose herself to anger, because at this point, she wasn't even certain who all she was angry with.

Ed had run off again, vanishing without even saying goodbye. She didn't know why he'd left, but she couldn't deny that she hadn't been at least partially expecting this every day these last two years.

And then there was Rose...and she didn't know what to make of Rose. She didn't even know Rose existed until she showed up one day with Edward, just four years ago! And neither of them talked much about where she came from or who she was. She was just the mystery girl that followed Ed home...and with a BABY! She knew better now, but the day Winry saw them walking up the road towards Rizenpool, she could have died. She remembered it so clearly.

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It was just four years back, and she was hard at work repairing an automail right arm. It was the same design as Ed had, way back when. She had heard rumors that he'd somehow managed to regain his own right arm and left leg, but she wasn't sure whether she could trust anything that came through Sheska. Well...that was a bit harsh. She knew that Sheska had an amazing mind for facts, but...when Sheska told her that Ed got his arm and leg back from fighting an evil, alien overlord, she found it difficult to take seriously.

The sun was still just beginning to set over the horizon when she saw them. She was up in her room with her wrench and her screwdriver, trying to get the fingers to function. There was a jam in the index finger, that was preventing it from curling, and had already cracked it open to find what was loose. She probably wouldn't have even seen them coming if she hadn't chanced a glance out the window, at the setting sun, and seen two figures walking down the path that lead to the train station. She knew there were many people that traversed this road, but something made her curious, and she stood up to go see what it was.

The first she identified was Ed, and it was at that moment that she felt her heart begin to soar. He was coming home, he was FINALLY coming home, and the thought filled her with excitement. She knew that red coat anywhere, and that scruffy blond hair with the braids down the back was a sight she had longed to see for what felt like ages. She couldn't make out the other figure, draped in white robes with a hood concealing the face, but it looked human. That alone was enough to turn Winry ecstatic. Ed always traveled with his brother, Alphonse. That other person...it had to be Al! And he was human again!

Without a moment's hesitation, Winry raced to the bottom of the stairs, whipping past her grandmother as she shot through the door. If Al was human, that meant their journeying was finally over. It meant...Ed and Al were coming home to stay! And it was with this excitement that she kicked her legs up the path, racing to greet him. The automail finger was left and forgotten in her wake.

But as she drew closer, something seemed wrong. Her run slowed to a jog, which fell back to a walk. Her eyes struggled in the dark, trying to make sense of the slightly taller figure. "Edward?" she called out to him, knowing he had seen her, but her eyes never left this other figure. The white robes Al wore had a faint pink in them, and now she could make out a face beneath that hood. And as soon as she saw it, she knew something was definitely wrong.

There was a woman there, with soft, dark skin and what looked like bright pink hair, though she couldn't see more than the bangs. Both her arms were folded around a small bundle she held against her chest, a bundle that made Winry's lungs freeze up. She wasn't too experienced with the subject, but she knew a baby when she saw one. "...Edward?" she tried to call out again, but her voice barely moved.

"Winry?" Ed called back to her, but she barely heard it. Her legs refused to move, and she found herself struggling to breathe. Her eyes never left the woman or her baby, and her voice just wouldn't come out. "Winry, what are you doing here?" As the two drew closer, she could hear the uncertainty in his voice, but she couldn't respond. "It's getting late. Shouldn't you be inside?"

"...I...I...I I..." she fought with her voice to speak, but nothing would come out. Her eyes still fixated on that little baby in the woman's arms, she found at this point that she couldn't even breathe. "...who...how..." was all she could stammer out, before she felt her legs beginning to give way.

She felt herself fall, felt the dirt beneath her as she struck the ground. "Winry!" she heard Ed's concern, felt the footsteps in the dirt as he ran to her side, but she couldn't even move. The shock of what she had mistaken for Ed's baby had been too much for her, and she couldn't even hear him anymore. She saw his lips move, but she couldn't hear the sound. Not long after, she passed out.

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"I still can't believe I passed out," Winry muttered to herself. It had been quite the shock, seeing that child there, the woman...she hadn't understood what had happened, and immediately she had thought the worst. Neither of them had stayed long, before Ed was summoned back to Central. Rose and her baby had gone with him, probably out of not knowing too many people in this place, and it was a whole two more years before they finally came back to stay. She still wasn't sure why Ed and Rose had gone back to Central, but she supposed they'd share that when the time came. In either case, she was still embarrassed for the misunderstanding she'd had on that day.

It wasn't Ed's baby. She knew that now, but neither would talk much on who the father actually was, which made her feel like there was something going on that they weren't sharing with her. That, alone, was a source of frustration, as she didn't like Ed keeping secrets from her. But the one time she pressured Rose to talk about it, Rose started to cry, and Winry came off feeling like a jerk. She had decided it best to leave Rose alone about it after that. Clearly there was some emotional trouble there, and she didn't need anyone forcing her to go through it again.

Winry sighed. Her anger was beginning to fade now, as she thought over poor Rose. She still didn't know what to make of her, the mystery girl from the east. She was afraid at first the Ed had brought her out of some romantic devotion, but over the past two years, it didn't seem that way. He'd treated the both of them about the same, really...hadn't he? Well...every now and then, Winry noticed, Ed would seem a bit more open with Rose than he was with her. It didn't bug her, not usually, but sometimes...every now and then, she'd feel this tinge poking itself out.

She wasn't usually the jealous type, or at least, she believed she wasn't. But why hadn't he said goodbye to her? He said goodbye to Rose, so why not her? What did Rose have that she didn't, besides probably-fake pink highlights and a child? Was that what it took to grab Ed's attention, you had to have a little kid with you!

She was getting angry again, she knew it, but dammit...why hadn't that jerk come to say goodbye! It was the least he could have done, and he didn't even do that. Did he just not care? Was that it? Was that why he ignored her? Or was he just a–"OW!"

Winry yelped loud enough to be heard through the door of her bedroom. As she cradled her finger, she reminded herself that it's a bad idea to mix rage and mechanical parts. This wasn't the first time she'd slipped up in a moment of anger, but it definitely left a painful reminded for the future. In her anger, she had let the wrench slip from her hands, and it had clattered down on her left finger. The sharp point at the end of the larger prong had jammed into her left index finger, which was now bleeding.

Winry's eyes narrowed into a menacing glare as she gazed down at the aggressor wrench on the ground. She was angry and she knew it, but she couldn't bring herself to be angry at the wrench. "Stupid jerk," she muttered to herself.

"Yeah," the crimson-haired woman sighed, "he can be a bit of a handful, can't he? Here, let me take a look at that." Before Winry even realized she had company, the mystery woman had taken her left hand within both of hers, taking a close look at the index finger. "Ooh, that had to hurt," she snickered, before opening her mouth and suckling gently on it.

"Hey!" Winry, in a blend of surprise and confusion, yanked her finger back out of the mystery girl's mouth. She cradled the finger in her arm, both to put pressure on the wound and keep it out of the mystery woman's grip. "Do not suck on my fingers. Do I suck on your parts!"

"Do you want to?" the mystery woman grinned, and there was nothing Winry could do to hide the embarrassed blush that crossed her face, though try she did by pressing her right hand over her face. She had walked right into that. There had been a time when Winry might have been surprised by the woman's sudden appearance in her room, but that time had long since passed.

Winry had never been slow. She knew the mystery woman couldn't be a real person, simply because she was too talented at appearing whenever Winry needed someone the most. She had come to associate the woman as a figment of her mind, most likely a manifestation of her own self-confidence, that appeared whenever she was undergoing too much stress. Of course, she realized that having an imaginary friend, or whatever the hell this manifestation was, was certainly not healthy. But at this point, she wasn't sure she cared.

"You're having boy troubles again, aren't you, sweetie?" She always knew what part of Winry's mind had been struck. "Look, I know it's hard right now, but trust me, it will get better. I know it will." Winry could feel the mystery woman's arms snaking around her neck, the woman embracing her the way she'd always wished she had a sister for. "He'll see how special you are. I know it. And if he can't...well, tough noogies for him!"

A laugh escaped Winry's lips. "Tough noogies? _THAT_ is the best you can do?" She felt her chest convulse from the laughter that was struggling to break free.

"What? It's not that bad," the mystery woman pouted.

"Oh, please," Winry chuckled. "Even I can come up with something better than _tough noogies!_"

"Hey," the pale-skinned woman smirked, "It worked, didn't it? You're laughing."

"Am not!" Winry defended. "I'm just...fuming with heavy breathing!" The red in her face betrayed her, however. The mystery woman was right, she was laughing, and she couldn't help it.

"Sure," she smiled. "Now, I have to go away for a while." The woman's finger poked against Winry's face, to illustrate her words. "Promise you won't rage too much over this while I'm gone?"

Winry snickered. Her illusion was starting to take a life of its own. It was even starting to ditch her like everyone else. Maybe she had to go play anger-management for some other girl. That thought made Winry laugh again, a figment of her imagination was cheating on her. "Yeah, sure," she chuckled. " I'll see you when you get back, I guess. Poof safely, Lust."


	6. Chapter 5: Dogs of War

. I would like to open by saying that I am truly very sorry for the previous chapter. Not my best work. That being said, I'm going to do my best to try and make it up to y'all this chapter. Promise.

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**Chapter Five: Dogs of War**

Ed knew this train station better than any other. The cold cement beneath his feet, the cement walls that lined the short tunnel, where people could board or depart the trains, the benches lined up along the walls...everything about this place was familiar to him. He remembered the first time he had been here, just ten years ago when he was still trying to become a State Alchemist. His brother and he had been put to the test on the train ride over, confronted with a small insurrectionist group led by an automailer named Bald.

Ed still remembered meeting Roy Mustang and his people here at this station, as they disembarked. Mustang was there both to pick up the battered Bald and his men, and to greet Ed and his brother, Alphonse. He had manipulated the both of them into getting on that train, directly for the purpose of having Ed and Al take out Bald's men. This impressed General Hakuro, a very important, very powerful man in the State government, who had been riding on the train with his family. He was impressed enough to allow Ed to take the State Alchemy exam, even though he was underage.

Mustang had put his life and his brother's in danger, for the sole purpose of manipulating events the way he desired. That was Ed's first real impression of the man, and to this day, it hadn't changed much. He didn't know what to expect from Roy Mustang now, as he saw the man waiting for him at the station, with his bodyguard Hawkeye dutifully watching his back. Ten years can do a lot to a man, and it was true that they both had grown since that day way back when. But some things never change.

"Mustang," Ed muttered to himself as he stepped down onto the cement floor. He wasn't surprised to see him there waiting for him. The man always seemed to know what was going on at any given time, and this was no exception. The morning light, as the train ride had taken him from evening through to morn, seemed to shimmer around Mustang, outlining him in the cold, dark tunnel.

"I'm glad you could make it," Mustang greeted Ed, though his cold, neutral tone betrayed no hint of his true motives. "I was afraid you might be mistaken for luggage and left at the wrong station." Ed knew that smirk that grew across Mustang's face, and it made the old anger burn inside him again. There were very few things in this world that he could stand less than Mustang's sarcastic remarks.

Ed's scowl failed to hide the sting from Mustang's latest shortness remark. He didn't come for more sarcasm. "Look, can we skip the sarcasm part of this? I didn't come here to be insulted, and I'm still not entirely sure whether I'll be playing this little game of yours, okay?" Ed was trying to take the ball back into his hands, but deep down, he knew Mustang still had control of the situation. That was always the most infuriating part of any dealings with Roy Mustang, the man never allowed control of any situation to slip from his grasp.

Sadly, his latest attempt to take control failed just as miserably as all the times before. "Sure you're not," Mustang retorted. "You came to Central just because you missed having the grace of my presence, and not at all because you have nowhere else to go." Mustang's words cut like a knife. He had caught Ed's attempt at a shove and had pushed back, and like all the times before, Ed could feel it. Truly, the most infuriating thing about Roy Mustang was that Ed, to this day, had never won a verbal encounter with him. "Now, come with me. I would like to introduce you to the people you will be working with."

Ed heard the commanding tone in Mustang's voice, and a familiar bitterness rose inside him. Everything was happening just as it had before, and he felt a faint tinge of fear beginning to well up in the pit of his stomach, fear that he would be trapped in the old, familiar leash that Mustang once had around his neck. "What," he attempted to joke, "that's it? No pleasantries, just straight to business? I suppose you never were too good at chit-chat, huh?"

Mustang turned, signaling Hawkeye with his hand as he began to walk towards the open end of the tunnel, the end that lead to the main city. He didn't even look back at Edward as he responded, "I never had to be. You have more than enough chat to go around. You can't expect anyone to have enough chit to keep up."

Ed scoffed at Mustang's dismissal. "Oh, please. You're Roy Mustang. Everyone knows you're full of chit."

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It wasn't long before Edward Elric found himself following General Mustang through a long, familiar corridor in the Central HQ. He distinctly remembered this old hallway, he'd been down it more than a few times in his life. This hallway led to the office that had been Mustang's back when he was a colonel, but why they were walking this path was a question Ed couldn't help but ponder. Surely Mustang had been given a bigger, more glamorous office to go with his position, hadn't he? Ed couldn't recall Basque Grand or Fuhrer Bradley being set up in an office like Mustang's.

He didn't have much time to ponder, however, as they approached the door. There were five heavily armed men and women, each dressed in a blue soldier's uniform, lined up just outside the door, against the wall. Ed's eyes fell on them first, counting them down. First was a man with dark brown hair, cut short, and a rifled slung around his shoulder. He was a foot taller than Ed, which made the young alchemist tick a little. The next was a blond man with blue eyes, and a handgun in a holster at his side. While the first man stood with one hand holding his sling, the second maintained both hands behind his back, with a very serious expression on his face. Ed could tell this guy was determined to do his job. It also bugged him that this guy was actually a few inches taller than the last.

Next was a woman, with brown hair tied into a ponytail to keep it out of the way. She looked young, though definitely no younger than himself. Ed guessed mid twenties for the girl, early thirties for the last two men. Her hip was free of a gun holster, however there was no denying the dangerous look in her eyes. Eyes which Ed found to be the most hypnotic green eyes he had ever seen, which seemed specifically designed to draw people in. He made a mental note to avoid eye contact with this woman, for it could result in Winry beating him with a wrench.

After her was another man, with long, brown hair that came down to join his beard. He looked closer to the woman's age, and Ed noticed a screwdriver sticking out of his back pocket. The man had a looser stance than the last two, more resembling the first man. He stood with one leg scratching the other, and one hand on the back of his head. This man didn't take his soldiering quite as seriously as the second man and the woman, which Ed couldn't help but appreciate. He knew personally, those who lived by the book, died by the sword.

The last was another woman, with short, silver hair. Her hair looked uncombed and ragged, but she didn't seem to mind. There was a special red heart sewn onto the pocket of her uniform, and she stood as serious as the second and third, with her hands behind her waist and her hazel eyes looking straight forward.

As they passed the five soldiers, Ed noticed that each of them dropped to attention and saluted Mustang as he passed by. A smirk crossed Ed's face when he saw this; he knew Mustang had to be thrilled to receive that much respect from the lower ranking officers. "Hey, general," Ed felt the need to ask beginning to rise up. "What's with the lineup? Does it just not feel like a homecoming without people kissing your bum?"

Mustang, however, chose not to respond to Ed's question. Instead, he continued walking forward, until he reached the door. Glancing back at Ed, he stopped and stood against the wall, gesturing at the knob. "Go ahead," he smirked, "open it. I believe you should do the honors." As Ed, with his eyes carefully watching Mustang, cautiously twisted the doorknob, he couldn't help but wonder what game the general was playing now. The door came open easily, and Ed passed one last glance at Mustang's smirk before he stepped inside.

The room was dark, save for the light streaming in from the open window. Ed could see the large office, but was surprised to find it empty. There were two bookshelves, one along each wall, both of which were bare of even the most simple of volumes. The desk, which had been lined with papers every time he had been in here before, was completely bare. Not so much as a desk lamp could be seen resting upon it. The two couches that sat just in front of the door, facing each other, with the table resting between them...both were still there, but they looked so quiet, and Ed could make out a fine sheet of dust over them. The whole room looked bare and unused.

General Mustang stepped inside shortly after Edward, followed immediately by Major Hawkeye. "What do you think?" Mustang asked, but his voice fell only on confused ears. Ed was straining his mind to understand what had happened here.

"I don't understand," Ed confessed. "Where did everything go? What did you do to your office?"

"My office is upstairs, Edward." The general dropped his left hand on Ed's shoulder as he looked around the room. "This place is empty because I took my things when I moved upstairs, three years back. This isn't my office anymore. It's yours, and you'll be the one that needs to fill it."

"Mine, sir?" Ed heard the words but they weren't making sense. His office...this place was his? But...his office? "I don't...I mean, you really mean that? My own office? I don't understand."

"Edward," Mustang continued, "every officer, when he comes of rank, is given an office of his own. That's the reason I've brought you here. I'm putting together a team, to deal with the insurrectionist movements that have been rising in our nation. Those five men and women outside, I have hand-selected to be a part of this team. I'll introduce you in just a minute, but I want to make sure you understand this. The reason I've brought you here is because I need you for this team. Because I trust you, more than anyone else, to work with them."

"Oh, I get it," the skeptical voice of Edward Elric began to show its face once more. "You've brought me here to put down little squabbles in your cities. That's what this is about? You give me the neat office and I just say 'yes, sir'? You should know me better than that, general. I won't sit by and follow orders just because I've been bribed with shiny things."

Mustang's left hand traveled up to his face, gently rubbing and caressing his forehead. He should have known Ed would take this the wrong way, and he tried to clarify. "Edward, that is exactly why you're here. I didn't bring you back to follow orders, Ed. I brought you here to _give them_." Mustang emphasized those last two words, to ensure that Ed would not miss them. "That's why you're getting this office, Edward. Because it is only fitting that our newest colonel have a place to reflect his rank."

Ed's eyes widened as the meaning of what Mustang was saying struck him. His brain struggled to process this information. Colonel...giving orders...the office...it was just too much for him. He couldn't believe that he'd been plucked from Rizenpool for THIS. "I...I mean...colonel..._colonel_?"

Mustang's familiar smirk returned to his face, now that Ed was finally processing it. "Colonel Edward Elric. Has a bit of a ring to it, doesn't it? Now, come with me. It's time to meet the men."

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Ed's brain was still struggling to make sense of this huge promotion, when Mustang dragged him back out into the hall to meet the five men once more. "Second Lieutenant Marie Sinclair," he started, and the woman with the heart on her breast snapped to attention, drawing her right hand just above her eyes to salute the general. "Sir!" was all she said, as she stood strongly for him. "At ease," Ed knew those words. Upon hearing them, the soldier returned to her position. "Lieutenant Sinclair is a talented medical doctor. She has seen her share of the wounded from the war in Liore, and has been trained for combat. She should prove an asset. No team should ever be without a doctor."

Ed felt himself dragged to the next person, the bearded man with the screwdriver sticking out of his pocket. "First Lieutenant Francis Dubois," Mustang called out. This man, like the woman before him, snapped to attention, saluting Mustang. "At ease. Lieutenant Dubois comes from the Western territories. If there is a machine, he can fix it. If there is a weapon, he can build it or take it apart. A good technician can mean the difference between being stranded in the desert and a homecoming here in Central."

Ed was starting to register these names and this information, but he was still struggling with the promotion. "First Lieutenant Eva Massner." Next was the woman with the hypnotic green eyes who, like the other two before her, snapped to attention and saluted. "At ease. Lieutenant Massner is an infiltrations officer. She has been trained to enter into the enemy ranks and to report back any information she can acquire." Ed lingered for a moment on those green eyes of hers. There was something familiar in her face, something that looked like he'd seen it before...but after a few seconds, he shook it off. He was probably just seeing things.

Mustang moved on without stopping for Ed's hesitation. Next came the tall, blonde man. "First Lieutenant Erwin Panzlef." Ed had gotten used to the snapping and saluting, and tried to imitate one of his own, right as Panzlef moved. "At ease. Lieutenant Panzlef will be your information officer. I don't think I need to tell you what an information officer's job is." And it was true, he didn't. Lieutenant Colonel Hughes, an information officer working here in Central, had been one of Ed's best friends. Ed had even wound up helping to deliver Hughes's daughter, though it certainly hadn't been intentional. Ed still felt a tinge of bitterness towards Mustang, who had withheld the fact that Hughes had been murdered from him, in order to deal with Liore. It was Lieutenant Ross, finally, who had told him the horrible truth about his friend in Central.

The last was the man with the rifle slung over his shoulder. Ed felt he could probably guess what this man's talent was. "Last, we have Second Lieutenant Josef Grueder." Like all the others, Grueder was quick on his salute. "Lieutenant Grueder is a sharpshooter, which I am sure you have already figured out. It is always important to have at least one to watch your back." Ed could see Mustang glance at Major Hawkeye for just a moment before he continued, "I know I'm grateful to have mine. Colonel Elric, I've selected these five men to assist you. I've done pretty well for myself on five subordinates, and I trust you can too."

"Wait a second," Ed interrupted. "I still haven't said yes to anything yet. You're going too fast. Frankly, I'm not even sure I need anyone to go with me. I mean, what exactly are you sending me into, general? How bad could it be, compared to what I've already faced?" There was a tinge of paranoia in Ed's mind as he looked at these five that had been prepared for him. He didn't like the idea of military personnel watching his every move.

"Your first mission, colonel, is a bit of a training mission. I want you to get used to working with a team, because that is not your strong point. East City is having some difficulty with chimeras. We believe there may be someone there that is trying to build an army for the insurrectionists, and whatever is happening, there have already been...spills. People have been attacked by these creatures, and I want to send you and your team in to clean it up."

"So why do I have to take a team with me?" Ed argued. "I've faced chimeras before, and I've come out just fine."

"Fifteen at once?" That number took Ed by surprise. "Whoever's doing this, he's no slouch. He's been mass-producing. I want to know why, and I want him shut down, and I don't have time to deal with your anti-social issues." He could hear a slight frustration in Mustang's voice, and it was enough to tell him that he was starting to tick the general off. Ed took that as a small victory on his part, but it wasn't over. He didn't want to have military dogs watching his every move. He didn't trust them well enough for that.

"I'll go there, and I'll shut him down, but I'll do it on my own," Ed argued. "I don't need anyone to go with me, and I work much better when I'm free to do my own thing."

"This is different, and I don't want you to argue this. You're going to need all the help you can get."

"I've never needed help before," Ed insisted. "I have _always_ worked just fine alone. I've never needed any support from you or the military, and you know it." Ed was going on the offensive, he knew, but he knew he was right.

"Yes," Mustang's voice lowered to a whisper, "and that worked out so well for your brother, didn't it?"

The soldiers that lined the walls stood silent, not wanting to get into this dominance battle. The tension that filled the hall after Mustang released those words could be cut with a knife. There was silence, an eerie quiet that crept over everything, and for almost a minute, one could hear a pin drop as the dominance battle raged in silence. Finally, Ed turned away in disgust, walking back down the hall. "Thanks for the office and the promotion, but you can forget it." Mustang's words had stung too deep. He had rubbed salt in a wound Ed was still trying to heal, and the death of his brother was something Ed didn't want to have thrown in his face. He broke into a run, not wanting to be stopped by anyone. Coming back here had been a mistake, and he should have known that.

"Edward!" Mustang called after him, but when he moved to follow, he was stopped by an arm from his left. The soft, delicate fingers that pressed against his chest were fingers he knew so well, and the steely gaze of Major Hawkeye was enough to tell him what she needed to say.

Hawkeye took a deep breath, before she spoke. "Let me go after him, general," she said with a quiet determination. "Another dominance battle between the two of you isn't going to help things. Let me try to talk some sense into him. I know what I'm doing."

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"Edward?" Major Hawkeye stepped softly out the front door, following after the young alchemist. She saw him standing there, just in front of the large, metal gate that shut off Central HQ from the rest of Central City. The gate was open, but he wasn't moving. She could tell there was something on his mind, and it didn't take long to imagine what. "Edward, listen...I'm sorry for what the general said."

She could see Edward's hands clenched in anger, the young colonel fuming over the loss of his only real family. "He hasn't changed. He's still the same sarcastic jerk he's always been, and I don't want to deal with that anymore." Ed spoke his words through clenched teeth, and Hawkeye knew he meant it.

"I know..." she tried to think for a moment, to gather her thoughts. "I know it's hard to see sometimes, and I know he doesn't always say the right thing, but...the general worries about you, Ed." Ed scoffed, and looked as if he were about to say something, but Hawkeye continued. "Do you know how long he's been working on getting this little unit of his approved? Eighteen months, Edward. And he did it specifically because he wanted to bring you back."

Ed looked back over his shoulder, at the major behind him. He could see the truth in her eyes, could feel the sincerity in her voice, but that only made it harder for him. "What does he care? He'll find someone else to fill my slot. I'm sure there are plenty of people here who would be more than willing."

"Not like you," Hawkeye sighed. "The reason Roy went to all this trouble is because he trusts you. Because you were there, at Liore, and you did what you had to do. Because you're not afraid to disobey what you know is an unjust order. That's why he wants you. Because you don't follow orders, and he trusts you more than anyone else here."

Ed sighed. The things Hawkeye was saying...they made sense to him. He was sick of playing these games, that much was certain. Tired of these dominance battles with Mustang, tired of jumping through hoops and trying to help people while the military waits to kick them in the butt as soon as he leaves.

He heard her footsteps behind him, heard Hawkeye step slowly closer to him. "Edward, I know this may be asking a lot, but if you can't trust Roy, then please, trust me. We need you. The State needs you, the people need you. Everyone needs you, because you're the only person we can really trust with this."

As Hawkeye finished, a dull silence fell over the both of them. Ed looked up into the sky, his thoughts soaring like an eagle through the soft clouds above. He wondered, back home, if Rose and Winry were staring at this same sky. If they could see the morning air as he saw it. No...Winry was probably still in bed, he guessed she'd had a long night of raging over his leaving. But Rose...heh, little Al would probably have woken Rose up, if nothing else.

Rose...his thoughts returned, as they had so many times over the past four years, to Liore. She had lost her home, lost...no, there were no words for it. What the military had done in Liore was inexcusable, but...what they had done to Rose...there were simply no words to describe the horror of what Rose had been put through. And he hadn't been there. Maybe...maybe if he could have been there...but he wasn't.

He had spent so long searching on his own. He had disregarded every loyalty he held as a State Alchemist, for the sake of his own journey to find the Philosopher's Stone. He had used them for his own means, and he had walked away. And he had believed he would actually get away with that, but the price had still been paid. So many prices were paid for his disloyalty, he could see that now. Maybe...maybe if he had actually been the soldier, for once, maybe something would have been different. Maybe if he had been there...

Hughes died, and he wasn't there. He was too busy chasing his dreams to the South, and Hughes had paid the price for it. A wife and daughter turned widow, when he might have been able to stop it. He could have been there, could have helped him...maybe then, maybe together, with him and Al, Hughes could have reported his findings. So much could have been stopped so much earlier if he had just stopped dreaming alone and started dreaming with the people that cared for him.

But the greatest example, what would always be one of the worst horrors in the State's history, was Liore. He had left them behind, left Rose behind, and forgotten. He had walked away from the city, believed his work to be done, and never looked back. He could blame the military all he wanted, for not telling him what was happening. But in truth, he never gave them the opportunity. Too busy chasing dreams, too busy searching for answers to questions that were better left unasked. So many had died in Liore, because he had turned his back on it for the sake of his dreams. Rose had suffered, tortured and...and worse...by the very military he had served. He should have known. He would have known if he had only paid more attention.

And what did he have to show for it all? Hughes died, Rose suffered, and what had he gotten in return for his dreams? Just how far had he chased them, what had he earned in place of the duties he had sworn to? His brother was dead. Not bound to a suit of armor, as he had spent the last seven years of his life, but dead and gone. Hughes died, Rose suffered, so that he could watch his brother die.

And here he was now. Maybe...maybe this was his second chance. Al had died so that he could live, but he had wasted the last four years. He had drowned himself in misery and refused to move forward. Aunt Pinako was right, it was time to move on. He had turned his back on the State, seen nothing but what he'd been told to see of them, and refused to believe that any good could be done from their ranks. And in doing so, he had sacrificed any chance of it. There were Roses in the world that needed to be protected. So many Roses were out there, and they were going to suffer if someone didn't do something about it. Maybe this was his calling. But he couldn't do it alone. He needed the resources. He needed the military.

"I'll do it." Those words were all that came from Edward's troubled lips at first. As he turned around to face Major Hawkeye, he saw the smile that slowly formed over her face. He knew she was relieved to hear him, but he had more to say. "But I have a condition. Tell Mustang I'm willing to be his attack dog, if that's what it takes. I'll lead his men. But this is my condition. My men are mine alone. They answer to me, and not to anyone else. If I find out even one of my men is taking orders behind my back, that someone else is working against me from within my own unit, then I walk away and never look back. I will **_not_** have another Liore on my hands."

A gentle smile crossed Hawkeye's lips, as she stepped forward. "You're starting to sound like a colonel already," she nodded. Ed watched as she slipped something from her pocket, something small and silver. It only took a second for him to realize what it was, as she took his right hand and deposited it gently in his palm. A sterling silver pocketwatch, with a lion insignia emblazoned across the top. The pocketwatch of the State Alchemist. "It's good to have you back, Fullmetal Alchemist."


	7. Chapter 6: Public Eye

**Chapter Six: The Public Eye**

The brave men and woman of the 61st stood proudly against the wall, listening intently as General Mustang outlined their mission for them. Major Riza Hawkeye could hear him just finishing up, as she walked down the hall. "Those are your orders," the general's voice commanded authority as he spoke, and all five soldiers stood as strong as stone as they listened to their commander.

When the general heard Hawkeye's footsteps in the hall, he turned to look at her. She nodded her head as she walked, with a tender smile on her lips. "I tracked him down, general," she started quietly. "He said he would do it, under the condition that no one on his team be taking side orders from anyone else in the military."

Mustang couldn't help but notice that Hawkeye was alone. There was no Fullmetal Pipsqueak walking the hall next to her, which made him curious. "And where has Colonel Elric run off to?" There was a slight hint of agitation in Mustang's voice, one that few other than Hawkeye knew him well enough to pick up. Clearly, he had hoped she would bring him back here.

Hawkeye sighed. There really was no getting around this. "The colonel has taken off. He said he needed to write a letter, and he wouldn't say any more. He also said he'll be back here sometime tomorrow. My guess is that he has gone to clear his head."

Mustang sighed and rubbed his forehead. This was so like Ed, disappearing without a trace and coming back later. At least this time, he had given advance notice of when he'd be back. Turning his attention back to the men, Mustang ordered, "Alright, men, I expect to see you back here tomorrow at noon. And if anyone sees the colonel, I would appreciate it if you would report back to me. Dismissed!"

The troops started down the hall, but one lingered behind. Lieutenant Grueder, with his rifle shouldered around his left arm, raised his right as a gesture that he had something he wanted to say. "Permission to speak freely, general?"

Mustang sighed. He knew someone would ask this, and he already knew what was coming. He watched Lieutenants Massner, Panzlef, Dubois, and Sinclair depart down the hallway, and hesitated a few seconds before he responded. "Permission granted, lieutenant. And your answer is yes, that kid was the colonel you will be taking orders from. He's more talented than his age might lead you to believe. That kid is Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist. I'm sure you've heard the stories about that one."

"With all due respect, sir," Mustang had grown to hate those words. Nothing good ever followed them. "We're going to be taking orders from that bite-size midget?"

Elsewhere, seated with his back against the concrete wall that bordered the Central HQ, Edward Elric felt a sudden, intense feeling of rage and loathing well up inside him. He wasn't sure where it was aimed at or where it had come from, but for some reason he couldn't quite grasp, he suddenly had the desire to hurt or maim someone.

"That bite-size midget," Mustang responded, "has seen more–"

"RRRRAAAARGHHHH!" Both men could hear a roaring voice in the distance, as though someone had become so consumed by rage that he couldn't help but unleash it.

There was a silence for a few seconds, before Mustang managed to gather his thoughts again. "...that was strange. As I was saying, that man has seen more field time than your entire unit, Lieutenant. He is a veteran of the war in Liore, and I don't mean the early days. Colonel Elric has handled more than his share of combat, and has seen the best and worst this military has to offer. I am sure you've heard the rumors surrounding the Ishballim called Scar, a few years back. That man is one of very few to face Scar and walk away. I would suggest you show him some respect. He has more than earned it." With those words, Mustang started down the hall, following after the others. He left Lieutenant Grueder to think over his words, and hoped there would not be any further incidents.

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"I can't believe it. He looks so young." Erwin Panzlef wondered whether or not his eyes were betraying him, as he walked the hall with Eva Massner. Dubois and Sinclair had already gone ahead, but Erwin wanted to hang back for Josef. The three of them were inseparable in their spare time.

Eva nodded her head, pressing her back against the wall and tilting her head up in thought. "I heard he was certified as a State Alchemist when he was only 11 years old." Erwin laughed at first, but then caught the serious look in his friend's eyes. "That would explain why he looks so young. I mean...let's face it, he can't be any older than any of us." A shudder passed through her body, which caught Erwin by surprise. "And the things I've heard...it's enough to give you nightmares."

"Wait," Erwin probed, "what are you talking about?"

Eva turned her head back and forth, making sure there was no one in the hall before she spoke. When she did, her voice was noticeably quieter than Erwin had grown accustomed to. "You've heard the stories, haven't you? The Fullmetal Alchemist? They say he single-handedly brought about an insurgency in the East. I've heard rumors that he still associates with those rebels, and some of the witnesses claim he was responsible for the sudden transmutation that took the lives of almost 1,000 of our soldiers."

Erwin's eyes blinked rapidly in confusion. "Wait, hold on a sec...I'm sure General Mustang wouldn't assign us to someone with such...questionable loyalty...would he?"

Eva shuddered a second time. "The man who murdered the fuhrer AND his entire family in his own home? And is it a coincidence that Colonel Elric led a one-man assault on the capitol building shortly before that? I'm telling you, it was a tandem strike to topple our government. They probably just found some cracks to slip through after it failed."

"Geeze, Eva, they're just rumors." Erwin scratched the back of his head, not sure how much credit to give her words. "I mean, according to rumors, the ghost of the wanted criminal Scar can be seen terrorizing the courtyard on the night of the full moon. You really shouldn't pay so much attention to these things."

The mention of Scar's name sent yet another chill down Eva's spine. "Don't get me started on Scar. They say Scar was leading an insurrection in Liore, until Colonel Elric murdered him, stole his wife, and proclaimed himself King of the Savages!" There was a wild panic in her eyes now, and Erwin couldn't help but laugh.

"King of the Savages? _Now_ you're pushing it."

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It was late in the afternoon when Colonel Edward Elric returned to Central HQ. No one knew where he had gone, only that when he returned, he didn't speak a word to anyone. He retired back to his office, passing wordlessly through the door, and slowly took a seat behind the desk. The room was still bare as it had been before, but no one questioned his silence. Lieutenant Marie Sinclair, however, couldn't help but wonder what was going on with his attitude. She'd been put off by his initial freaking out, and the way he'd stormed out of HQ. Now, she had to know what it was that had him wound up so tight.

"Maybe this isn't such a good idea," she whispered to herself, standing just outside the door to the colonel's office. She had gotten together the nerve before, but it had faded as soon as she found herself so close to a man who had already proven to be quite volatile. But she knew she couldn't afford to be frightened. She gathered her courage, then knocked quietly at the door.

When there was no answer, Marie knocked again. The eerie silence was beginning to gnaw at her, and when another minute passed without answer, she slowly turned the knob in her hand and eased the door open. The room within was dark and silent, with the only light coming from the open windows behind Col. Elric's desk. "Excuse me...colonel?" She could see him, back behind his desk. A sheet of paper lay before him, and a pen held delicately in his right hand softly tapped the desk as he thought. "Um...I knocked, but...you might not have heard me..."

When he heard the door open, heard Marie's voice, the colonel tilted his head back up towards the door. She felt a chill in her heart when his eyes fell upon her, and for a minute, she felt that she had made a terrible mistake. She had heard so many horrible stories about some of the State Alchemists in this place. Basque Grand was a horror story in his own right. Zolf J. Kimblee, she had the displeasure of meeting during the war in Liore. Adrian Thorne...that name sent chills down her spine every time she thought of it, that alchemist she knew better than any. Even Roy Mustang had a few horror stories surrounding him with the men. And the Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward Elric...it had been only four years ago that he was wanted for treason, for his connection with the horror that befell the unit in Liore, for the deaths of an entire battalion of men. As his eyes settled on her, a chill ran down her spine, and she took several seconds composing herself before she could speak. "Sir...I, um...I just...um..." She took a deep breath, trying to get herself together, before she tried once more. "Colonel, I just thought...well, I thought..."

"Is this about my height?" The colonel's eyes narrowed, sending another chill through Marie.

"No, not at all!" she threw at him. "I just...well..." She took a deep breath and gathered her strength. "I just wondered if everything was okay. The way you ran off earlier today suggested that there was a problem with the unit, and I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to get everything straightened out." She stood up proud, with her shoulders back and her legs together, just as she had learned so many years back. Standing at attention to address her superior officer.

The colonel raised an eyebrow as soon as he saw her stance, and for a second, she was afraid that she'd done something wrong. "Um...why are you standing like that?"

Marie almost had a heart attack the moment she heard her colonel's voice. Had she done something wrong? What would happen if she'd messed up...she wanted to make a good impression, she wanted to... "I'm sorry, sir, is there something wrong with my stance?"

The colonel laughed, a sound that brought both confusion and relief to Marie. "You look like a statue, and that can't be comfortable. Look, I don't know what they've taught you, but I don't care how you stand when you talk to me, okay? Keep pulling yourself that tight and you're going to break something, and trust me when I say that's not a pleasant experience."

"Um...yes...yes, sir." Marie loosened herself a little, relaxing her legs, but that was the most she could bring herself to do. She wondered if this was some sort of test

"Look," the colonel started, "there's nothing wrong with the unit, so don't worry. General Mustang and I just don't see eye to eye on too many things, and if you make that into a height joke I will hurt you. I've...well, let's just say I've had a pretty bad history with the military, especially when it comes to having trained soldiers watching my back."

"I heard about Liore." Marie's voice acted before she could think, and as soon as the words were out, she clapped her hand in front of her mouth. She could feel her heart stop, and when the colonel narrowed his eyes at her, she felt she could fall down and die right there.

"How much do you really know about Liore?" Colonel Elric asked. It was a question she hadn't expected to hear from him, and one she wasn't sure she knew the answer to. She had heard plenty, but there was a probing tone to the colonel's voice that made her wonder what he knew, and what she didn't.

"Well," Marie started, "I was stationed over in East City during the war in Liore. If I recall correctly, the people in Liore rose up to try and overthrow the government. We were sent in to quell the insurrection, which took a lot longer than it probably should have. I didn't see much of the conflict, since I was mostly taking care of our wounded. But some of the wounds I saw...I mean, we had men talking about devils fighting in the streets of Liore." Her fists clenched in anger as the memories began to come back to her. "I lost my brother in Liore. The unit he served in was massacred. The only survivor was traumatized, telling wild stories of a devilish witch who turned her fingers into lances, before he died from the horrible gashes through his body." She remembered that day so clearly, she could still smell the blood.

"...escalating the conflict..." the colonel muttered to himself. Marie was surprised by the tone of his voice. He didn't sound surprised or angry to hear about the massacre. A paranoid thought struck her, that perhaps he had already known. But she shook that off. She couldn't afford to be doubting her superior officer, especially not before she'd really had time to get to know him.

"Yes, sir," Marie confirmed. "It was not long after that, we declared open war against Liore. I never went to the front lines, so I can't say for certain what the battles were like. But from what I heard, the people there were more animal than human. I hear they fought bitterly, but...I have to admit, I never understood what they were fighting for."

"Survival," the colonel offered. "When an enemy marches unprovoked into your home and begins killing your people, all you can do is fight back."

"UNPROVOKED!" Marie exploded, before she was able to gather herself. "...I...I apologize, sir, but...my brother died because of their ambush. With all due respect, sir, Liore started the fight."

"Sure," the colonel conceded. "Liore made the first move. Just like Ishbal started their war, right."

"An...interesting comparison, sir, but yeah. I suppose Liore isn't much different from Ishbal, is it?"

"You have no idea," the colonel sighed.

Marie could feel herself beginning to calm down with the colonel's concession. The anger was fading, and she was starting to feel self-conscious about her moment of insubordination. "Sir...I apologize for my earlier explosion. I stepped out of line, and I will accept whatever–"

She heard herself interrupted by the colonel's laugh. "What did I tell you about being so stiff? Don't worry about it. Now, if I could have a little peace, I'd like to finish this letter. We leave tomorrow, right? You should get some rest. If these chimeras are anything like what I've handled before, you'll all need it."

"Yes, sir!" Marie brought her legs back together and saluted once, before turning for the door. But before she left, her eyes caught sight of the letter resting on the desk. Three names caught her eye but only one really took her by surprise. Winry Rockbell, Pinako Rockbell, Rose Thomas...as she slipped through the door back into the hallway, she couldn't help but wonder. Rose Thomas...Rose...wasn't that the name of the prisoner of war from a few years back? She still remembered...

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Night fell, and activity died. The halls of Central HQ were dark and silent, and there was not a sound coming from inside its premises. Not a light could be seen, save for one on the third floor, near the dormitories. A single window was open, and if one were close enough to look, they would see two figures speaking in the pale light. A man with long, green hair that came down from his head in spikes. Pale white skin that covered his body, and dressed in black shorts so short one could argue it a skirt, and a tight black top that barely concealed his muscular chest.

As the man paced in the silent office, a woman sat firmly atop the open windowsill. Her right leg crossed over her left, with pale skin to rival the man's. She was dressed in a long, black skirt with a slit running down it, and a silky black tank that did little to conceal her assets. Her soft, crimson hair curled under her ears as she listened to the man speak.

"Everything is happening just as I said it would," the man spoke with a grin. "The bastard's back, and he'll be leaving for East City tomorrow. I want you to run ahead and tell that idiot beast man to have his beasts ready. It will be good to keep him on his toes, and I'm sure he'll be rusty, if what I've heard about the last four years is correct."

The woman turned her head, looking out the window. "Greed's been looking forward to this. I just hope the chimeras aren't too much for him. She's so hoping to get him all to herself."

The man laughed, a sound that chilled the woman's heart to hear. "That kid is like a cockroach. You can squash him as hard as you want, he'll always come back. The beasts are merely the warm up act. I'll squash him myself when the time comes." The crimson woman could see the man's fist clenched, and for a second she saw the familiar hatred flash across his eyes, before he composed himself. "But that is a matter for later. How is your project going?"

A sultry grin crossed over the woman's face, and her attention was turned once more out the window. "It couldn't be easier. If there is a larger well of frustration and pent-up desire, I haven't found it. She's almost ready to blow, and I'll be sure to be there when she does." She looked back at the man, and he could see the sincerity in her menacing grin. "Trust me, this one will be a cakewalk. Elric is doing all the work for me. All I need to do is offer a shoulder and an ear, and she'll be ours before you know."

There was something in her eye, however, that made the man suspicious. It was only moments before the man was in her face, and she felt an old tinge of fear beginning to rise inside her. "Do not blow this, Lust. I want that bastard to suffer, and I will not have my vengeance ruined by hasty action. I didn't claw my way back from the clutches of those damned Keepers only to watch my vengeance get stripped away. I have been denied TWICE OVER, I will not lose this one too." Lust found herself terrified, staring into the hateful, merciless eyes of her master. But the moment passed, and the man turned away from her. "I'll just have to make this bastard suffer threefold, for those plucked from my grasp."


	8. Chapter 7: A Rose by Any Other Name

**Chapter Seven: A Rose by Any Other Name**

Tears stained the floor as the young girl fell limp, shackled by her wrists to the cold, stone wall. Her wrists had been rubbed raw by the harsh, metal shackles, but she could barely feel them anymore. Dried blood stained her palms, dribbled down from terrible gashes in each of her fingers. Several gashes ran down her arms, lashed and torn by her cruel captor's malice. And still, she couldn't feel it. The pain hurt worse in other places, places that had been shown no sign of mercy. And inside, she knew the truth. No matter how she prayed, come what may, she would always hurt like this. Scars such as hers would never heal.

The room was as cold and silent as a damp cavern in the middle of the night. A concrete basement beneath a massive headquarters, with few accommodations. The woman never left the shackles against the wall, where the only light that ever touched her face was that of the candle on the far wall, next to the thick, iron door. There was a chest against the wall to her left, one that she had learned to fear for the horrors her captors took from that to use against her. To the right, an old coal stove sat in the corner, and she knew its ravages only too well. The iron heated inside its furnace had left many scars on her bare, vulnerable flesh.

As she sobbed silently in the cold, dark room, three figures stood powerfully over her. Their faces were burned onto her memory, etched into the cold, dark places of her worst fears. In the center stood their leader, their master. All three were dressed in the same blue suits, the attire she had come to associate with the evil military of the State. But the man in the center was different. He had golden stripes running down his shoulders, she supposed as a sign of his power over the dogs at his side. His short, silver hair showed evidence that it may once have been brown, having not yet gone completely to gray, and his face showed the ravages of age. But she didn't care. He was a monster, a horrible devil sent to destroy her. He was evil.

She feared him most, for he had power. But he was not the one she hated. Her hatred burned strongest for the man to his left. She could see his face in her mind every time she closed her eyes. His long, light brown hair that caressed his shoulders like a woman's, those green eyes that sparkled with malice every time he looked at her. The sparkling golden ring on his left hand, with the strange circle carved into it. That sadistic laugh, that grin on his face...she could live a thousand years and never forget that evil creature with the familiar silver pocketwatch on its chain.

"General, with all due respect, don't you think she's had enough?" The third one spoke. The woman didn't see much of this third person, a young woman with short, silver hair and sparkling, hazel eyes. Her uniform was special, though the woman wasn't sure what it was. There was a red heart sewn into the breast of her uniform, and she was sure it meant something. She just didn't know the meaning behind it. She came in every so often, to treat her wounds. She never said much, and did her work fast. Whenever she was close, the woman could see something that looked like hate burning in her eyes, though she could never understand it. What had she done to earn this woman's malice?

The strong man in the center sighed, leaning forward to get a closer look at the woman's young, battered form. "We've only just started with her. She's going to tell us everything she knows, if she ever wants to leave this place. Don't concern yourself with her, Lieutenant. She's just an animal." The woman snarled, but it was a vain effort. She knew there was nothing she could do in these shackles that held her.

"But, sir, what if she–" The lady on the left was cut off abruptly by the general's voice.

"I told you not to concern yourself. Now, aren't there people in the higher floors that need your attention? We still have wounded from the front lines, and they're not going to get any better without their medic, are they?" The general's voice was direct and commanding. But the woman didn't care too much for his voice, but for his words. Fear gripped her heart when she realized what he was doing. He was sending the lieutenant out of the room. He didn't want her to see what was about to happen, and that thought terrified the young woman more than anything in the world.

Surprise crossed the young lieutenant's face when she heard the command, but she knew better than to question the general. "Yes, sir," she saluted, before she backed out the door. She passed one last glance towards the woman in chains, and the woman thought for a moment that she could see pity in the lieutenant's eyes, before the cold, iron door slammed shut. And now, she was terrified. She was alone with the two men before her, and she knew what that meant.

Fear gripped her heart as the man on the right moved, grasping her hair thickly in his clenched, violent hand, and pressing his face only inches from her own. "Now, let's try this again," the man snarled, and she hated that sadistic grin on his face. "You're going to talk to us, sweet pet, and you're going to tell us everything you know." The woman snarled in defiance, but she had little strength left to put behind it.

"Go to Hell," she cursed at him, but all she received in return was a crack to her face by the man's left fist. She felt his knuckles strike her face, felt her head jerk to the side by the force of the impact, and as she gathered her strength to tilt her head back, she tasted blood dripping into her mouth. It only took her a second to realize; the man's ring had cut open her cheek.

"What do you want from me," she sobbed, as she gathered her strength to move. The man had let go of her hair, and now stood powerfully over her limp, broken form. "Why are you doing this to me?"

The general's eyes leveled down on her, and she could feel his cold, steely gaze piercing her soul. "You know what I want. Where has the ringleader gone, woman? Where is Cornello?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" she exploded, with what little strength she had. "I already told you, I don't know. How many times are you going to ask me that? I...I don't know..." As her tears dripped softly down her face, she felt her hope begin to fade. They were going to beat her until she gave them an answer that she didn't have. She would never leave this place.

"Thorne, again," the general commanded, and the man with the ring grinned. The woman could see him moving closer, see him towering over her, and panic gripped her heart. She kicked at him, shoving both her bare legs at him in a desperate terror, screeching at him to get away, but her effort was useless. She was pulled off balance when he gripped her left leg, clutching it in both of his arms and pressing her shin against his chest.

"Last chance, little girl," the evil man, Thorne, snarled at her. His right hand crossed gently up her shin, while his left ensnared and caressed the outside of her thigh. She didn't know what he was up to, but it frightened her.

"Where is Cornello?" the general demanded. "Where is he hiding? Talk."

"I..." The woman stared into the dark, malicious eyes of the ringed man, and she was afraid of what he would do as he grasped her leg in his arms. "Please...please, stop, I...I don't know...I'd tell you if I did but I don't, please, just let me go..." her soft voice pleaded, begged the men for mercy. "Please...please, don't hurt me...please..."

Her cracked, broken words fell on dead ears. At the end of her rope, she begged them for mercy, and it hurt everything inside her to do. She could feel her own pride slipping away, stripped from her by these evil men. She felt ashamed with herself, that she had been reduced to this, but in her terror, it was all she had left. Groveling, begging, was the only option left to her. But this, too, meant nothing to them. All the general wanted was an answer she couldn't give. And so, she heard his voice, his evil, twisted voice commanding the sadistic creature gripping her leg. "Break it."

"NO! PLEASE!" She pleaded, tears streaming down her eyes, but it was no use. She felt Thorne pushing her shin up, felt his arm holding her thigh firm as he pressed her knee backwards. She begged, she pleaded, but all she got in return was more pain. Her screams could be heard echoing down the halls, her agony casting its shadow for all to hear. To this day, it was still uncertain which had been louder: the agonized scream, or the sickening crack that had followed it.

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"Rose?" The young woman writhed in the soft bed in the basement of the Rockbell house. Her soft, tender skin shook with a furor, and Winry could see a cold sweat on her pained face. "Rose, wake up." Winry's hands gripped Rose's shoulders, gently shaking her. "It's okay, Rose, it's just a nightmare. You have to wake up." She could see the horror on Rose's face, the way her lips were curled in an expression of pure terror. She couldn't imagine what could be going on in Rose's dream, but right now, she didn't care. "Come on, wake up!"

"No...please...please, don't...don't...stop, please...stop...STOP! P-PLEASE, NO!" Rose shot straight up, her eyes bursting open from the terror of the nightmare. Her breath came out in heavy gasps as she struggled to regain her sense of where she was, and before she'd even managed to compose herself, she was crying. Tears flowed down her cheeks, and she pulled her legs up to her chest so she could bury her face in them.

"Rose?" Winry's voice was soft and quiet. Whatever it was Rose had dreamt, it had to have been intense to have this kind of reaction from her. "Are you okay?" Her hand gently reached out to touch Rose's shoulder, trying to comfort the crying mess, but she soon found Rose pulling away from her touch, sobbing to herself and shuddering at the slightest contact.

"Rose...listen, I'm here, okay?" Winry sat down softly on the bed beside Rose, with a warm, comforting smile. "I don't know what happened in your dream, but it was just a dream, okay? Just a dream." Her arms wrapped around Rose carefully, trying to comfort her as she would a wounded child. After a minute, Rose uncurled herself and returned Winry's embrace, crying softly on her shoulder.

It was several minutes before Rose finally managed to compose herself again. Crying softly in Winry's arms, she had finally managed to pull herself back together. "I...I'm sorry..." she muttered out through broken whispers. "...I don't know what came over me."

"Hey, it's okay," Winry smiled. "We all have our nightmares, right?" Rose pulled herself back off Winry, lifting her right hand and wiping the tears out of her eyes as she listened to her speak. "I know I've had my share of pretty bad ones, especially when Ed leaves on these stupid trips of his. Hey..." she wondered, "is that what it was? You dreamt that something bad was happening to Ed, huh?"

"Something like that," Rose muttered silently, and Winry couldn't help but notice how the pink-banged girl couldn't so much as look her in the eye.

Winry smiled, deciding to let it drop for now. She was even more confused than ever about Rose, but now was not the time to be pressuring her for anything. She decided instead to focus on the stranger question, as she looked around the basement bedroom. "Um...if it's okay to ask, why were you sleeping in Ed's bed?"

As her tears began to slowly dry, Rose struggled to push forward a smile. "I just...well, Al was playing with Pinako, and I just...well, I wanted to take a nap someplace quiet. I figured Edward's room had pretty good walls, so I ducked down here." It was true, for the most part. However, what she wasn't telling Winry was that she was also curious about just how it would feel to sleep down here. She had dozed off picturing how it would feel to lay there with Ed's strong arms around her.

It was a fantasy, she knew, but she wasn't sure just how much she cared that it was only a fantasy. He had only been gone for two or three days now, but to her, it felt like he'd been gone for ages. She wasn't the best liar, though, and Winry could read her like an automail manual. "You miss him, don't you?" There was a quiet sadness in the blonde girl's eyes as she spoke, and all Rose could do was nod her head. "Yeah...the thing about Ed is, he doesn't stay in one place for too long. I sometimes wonder if it's a matter of fear. Ed's lost everything he's ever had. I think he believes that disaster if following him, and if he stays too long in one place or near one person, they'll be the next victims. Or something like that. It's hard to explain, but...I've known Ed and Al...um...Ed's brother, not little Al...my whole life. But ever since their mom died, Ed's been...well...he believes he doesn't have a home, and I don't think he ever intends to find one."

Rose blinked her eyes in confusion. "But why wouldn't he...I mean...I heard about their house. But what about us?" She sounded hurt, and Winry guessed that after that nightmare she'd been having, this probably wasn't the time to lower the boom on that one. But at this point, there wasn't much choice.

Winry sighed, knowing there wasn't really anything else she could go into. Rose sounded hurt, and even though she didn't know what the nightmare had been, she couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor girl. And inside, a part of her hated Rose for not letting her hate her. She was just so difficult not to like. "I'm sure he'll come back," she sighed. "Eventually, he always does. But...Ed doesn't really see the people around him. He has trouble keeping us in sight."

"Yeah..." Rose lamented. "I...I've noticed." She closed her eyes, and Winry could see that there were still tears threatening to fall in them. Leaning forward, she pulled Rose into a tight hug, with her hands softly rubbing the broken girl's back.

Winry held that hug for only a few seconds, before she pulled back. With a smile, she climbed to her feet, starting back towards the door. "I'm going to head back upstairs and cook lunch. You just...I don't know. Get some rest, or something. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Yeah," Rose smiled, though the effort was fairly weak. "Rest...okay." Laying her head back down on Edward's pillow, she found her mind beginning to wander. Where was the man who had captured her affections? Where was he while she lay here, haunted by the shadows of her past?

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"Sir?" As the train thundered on its tracks, Ed heard the voice of one of his lieutenants. He sat in his small, private compartment in the train, partially marveling at the luxury of the car as his eyes stared out the window at the passing landscape.

"Come on in, Lieutenant," Ed called through the door. He wasn't surprised to see Lieutenant Erwin Panzlef on the other side, once the door opened. "Sit down. East City's still a couple days away."

Panzlef took a seat opposite Ed in the private car, but noticing his distracted gaze, he decided to start the conversation. "Sir, these...creatures...we're supposed to be finding. Any idea what they're like? I mean, I've never really seen a chimera before. I've heard the stories, but–"

"Stories mean nothing," Ed remarked. "They're never true to the real thing. No, believe me, this is going to be different than whatever you've heard. I can't tell you anything that will prepare you for what lies ahead, because I don't know what it will be. I've seen everything from a lion with a crocodile rear end, to a woman who could bend and distort her body like a snake. There's no way of knowing what's waiting for us in East City, so don't worry so much about it."

Lieutenant Panzlef sighed. "Yes, sir."

With that, Ed turned his attention back towards the land passing by outside. As he gazed up at the sky, he wondered if somewhere, Rose and Winry were looking up at this same sky. Why was he here? Why wasn't he back in Rizenpool with the girls? Simple. Because he was needed here, because this was where they needed him to be. That was the easy answer, the easy explanation. But he couldn't help but wonder; was it the truth? Or was he here because he was afraid of them? Because he was afraid of what getting too close to one of the girls might mean?

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Deep underneath East City, in a complex of concrete and machine, a beast man paced irately back and forth. Cages lined the walls of the room, and he could hear the snarls and roars of the beasts he'd made within. His claws clicked against the concrete floor as he paced, his agitation beginning to rise. Finally, at last, he heard the voice of a messenger in the doorway on the far wall, between the cages.

"I got the call," the woman grinned. "And don't worry, she's okay." As she stepped into the light, the beast man could see her for all her glory. A woman, with long, black hair that went down her back, and pale flesh. He knew her well enough by this point, the woman they called Greed, and it made him smile to hear her voice. If she was here, that meant she'd heard from...

"She wants you to get your beasts ready," the woman ushered. "It seems the State has found out about our little project here. They're sending someone to stop it, someone that wants to take her from you. She needs you to protect her, and you know what that means. A few days from now, a train will be arriving at the station. Make sure that none of the State's men who depart that train are left alive by the next morning, or we could have a problem on our hands."

"...is she okay?" The beast man's voice was little more than a whisper, as he pulled his dark, brown trenchcoat tighter over his body. "What of my...is she safe?"

"Don't worry," Greed assured him. "She'll be just fine, as long as you do what she requires of you. Stop the men before they can find her, before they can hurt her. She'll be here in a few days as well, she's hiding on the same train as them, but she's a good little hider. She knows what she's doing, so don't worry. She'll be just fine."

"Good," the beast man whispered. "She needs me...she needs my beasts, right? She needs them..."

"This may be hard on you," Greed comforted. "One of these people, you know personally. But remember why you're doing this, and you'll do fine. Use your beasts. Kill them all. For her."

"Yes," the creature whispered to himself. "For her. I'll do it for her, and then she'll be safe. And then she'll be here, my little one." Greed noticed him ranting. He did this all the time, she had come to realize, and it always amused her to see him go off. "For my little...I'll do it for you, my little one. My Nina."


	9. Chapter 8: Howl of the Dark Wolf

**Chapter Eight: Howl of the Dark Wolf**

The sound of iron slamming against concrete filled the dark, quiet laboratory. The thick, iron door leading to the creature cages had just been shoved open with all the tact of an angry bull, and a powerful man stood in the silent doorway. Approximately in his mid-twenties, the man had brown, tattered pants that covered his lower body, but chose to go barechested for the simple convenience. He wore a green duster that he left hanging open, with his strong hands resting within its pockets.

At 6'9", the man was muscular, there was no denying that. His powerful chest could easily be seen through his open duster, a physique that only those that dedicated their lives to power could achieve. Unless, of course, they opted for the shortcuts that had been offered this man. The marks of his shortcut were ominously clear, in the sharp, vicious claws that rested in his pockets, the long, black mane of hair that streamed down his back, and the glowing, yellow eyes that rested above his snarling mouth. His dark, Eastern skin served only to complement the appearance, giving him the look of a phantom of the dark, a boogeyman of terror that haunted one's nightmares.

His thick boots concealed his sharp hind claws, the way his feet turned sharp in the front half, and the way he only had four toes with sharp, dangerous nails. His hands too lacked their last finger, and the pointed nails were sharp enough to carve out an elk's hide. When he spoke, sharp, vicious teeth could be seen within the man's mouth, teeth that could rend the skin off a man with the ease of a beast. There was no mistaking this tall, powerfully built man. He was an alchemically created monster, a creature considered by most to be the most depraved form of alchemy: a chimera.

"Tucker," the man snarled, as a deep, thick voice emanated from his beastlike throat. "How much longer will this be? It's been three DAYS NOW!" His right claw whipped from his pocket, slamming hard against the doorframe behind him. The creature was anxious. He wanted blood.

"Patience, my friend," the whispering voice called to him. Before him, seated at the table in the center of the room, was Shou Tucker, the Sewing Life Alchemist. An alchemical attempt at a human transmutation had left the man's human body facing the wrong direction on the back of a large, brown-furred bear creature with a long, catlike tail. His human chest protruded from his back, and his arms bent back to merge with the bear's chest, while its own arms swept forward in front of it. His neck, merged with the beast's, also bent back, so that his head faced the proper direction. However, this resulted in his human face being upside down in the front of his head, with his eyes on the bottom and his mouth on the top. He had two long ears that swept a couple feet out to the sides, each of which faced forward to gather sound. With his small, circular glasses completing the image, he was the perfect example of human alchemy gone strange.

"I've been patient," the beast snarled. "I've been patient for three days, waiting for that damned train to arrive. Now I want to know what is taking so long!"

Tucker pressed softly on his glasses, trying to get them back into their proper position. "I have...I have spoken with my daughter, on the train," he clarified. "Nina says it will be here soon. She will be here soon."

"You think I care about that little girl!" The beast roared. "What about Elric? Has it been confirmed? Is he on the train?"

"Yes," Tucker confirmed, "I'm afraid he is. Nina reports that the State has sent six after us. One sharpshooter, one spy, one investigator, one engineer, and one doctor, with Edward Elric leading them. They will arrive at 6 PM tonight." There was a sadness in his whispers as he spoke, one the creature could easily detect.

"Good," the beast snarled. "It's about time they got here. The hounds are getting restless, and so am I! Tonight, I will find him, and I will rend every drop of blood from his carcass. I will tear the beating heart from his chest and I will consume it. He will watch as I devour him as painfully as possible, and only when I have such mercy, will he finally know the embrace of death."

Tucker sighed, his memories beginning to plague his mind. He remembered ten years back, when Edward and his brother were staying at his place. He remembered how nice they were to his precious Nina, how much they had cared for her. It felt like his heart was splitting in two to see that boy now coming to them for war. "You really hate him, don't you?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

The creature scoffed at the question, knowing only malice when it came to the Fullmetal Alchemist. "He will pay, Tucker. That's the whole reason I came here, remember? It's why I let you do this to me." His claws scraped against the concrete wall, as his mind flashed on the horrible images of the war. "That boy will pay with every drop of blood in his wretched hide for what he did to Liore."

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"Zere she is!" the overexcited Lieutenant Francis Dubois proclaimed, as the train thundered into East City. "I t'ink. Zis is ze East City zis time, is it not?" He had done this with every town they had passed through, and the others were beginning to tire of it.

"Yes," Marie sighed, "this is it. East City, the last shred of civilization before you enter the savage lands of the East. Welcome to the last sanctuary of morality in this sun-soaked desert hell." Seated in the seat next to where Francis's face was pressed to the window, she couldn't help but feel a pang of the old fires beginning to burn again as they came this far into the Eastern terrain.

"Gee," Francis grinned dryly, "You are ze pinnacle of ze sunshine today, yah?"

"Don't mind her," Erwin smiled from the seat across the aisle. Eva sat snug beside him, with her head pressed to a small pillow against the wall of the train as she rested. "She's got her own issues with the Easterners. You probably shouldn't worry too much about it."

"Vell," Francis shrugged, "I am certain ze colonel vill carry us through, come vhat may. Ze, as you called it, 'sun-soaked dezert hell" should be no problem for ze team, yah?" Marie started laughing the moment Francis finished talking, and Erwin was visibly struggling to contain his chuckles. When Francis looked back, he could see Josef sitting in the row behind Eva and Erwin, and he could easily make out the sarcastic look in the gunman's eyes. "Vhat? Vhat I say?"

Marie managed to contain herself, and was the first to speak. "You're actually relying on the colonel? Have you even HEARD the stuff going around about him? You're better off trusting your life to those Eastern dogs than to Colonel Elric. The man's got his loyalties confused, to say the least."

"I don't understand," Francis blinked. "Vhat are zey saying?"

Erwin tilted his head to the side, looking down at Eva sleeping. "There are rumors going around that Colonel Elric had something to do with the transmutation in Liore a few years back."

"Tranzmutation?" Francis asked. This was the first he had heard of the disaster in Liore, having been stationed in the West near his home country before being sent to Central the previous year. He hadn't been aware of most of the war in the East, as he had been paying most of his attention to negotiations with his home nation.

Erwin sighed, trying to find the words to explain. "Four years ago, the State was at war with one of the Eastern cities, a place called Liore. It was a small desert village that had suddenly decided to rise up in arms against us. They were led by a man named Cornello, though I heard he disappeared shortly after the war's start. But that's not the point, the point is that Colonel Elric was the last State Alchemist to show up at the war. I've heard he went into the city against direct orders that no soldier move yet, and hooked up with a criminal by the name of Scar. When the military finally made our move against Liore, the city was completely empty. An entire battalion was sent in to root out the insurrectionists, but there were none there. However, as soon as the men had entered the city, a massive Transmutation Circle was activated, which wiped out the entire unit. We lost almost a thousand men that day. Very few alchemists could have pulled off something like the Liore transmutation, and--"

"And it wasn't the colonel," Josef finished, as his eyes watched out the window at the buildings of East City passing by. "It was an alchemist, yes. But Colonel Elric did not perform that transmutation."

"Yeah," Erwin sighed. "Yeah, he probably didn't, but there's still the chance that–"

"No," Josef glared. "There's not. It was not Colonel Elric. He may be an alchemist and a child, but it was not him."

Josef's clarity sparked interest in the other soldiers. He could see the eyes of Erwin, Marie, and Francis all falling on him, and he realized that they wouldn't be happy without an answer. "How do you know?" Marie questioned suspiciously. "What makes you so certain it wasn't him?"

Josef sighed. "You weren't there. You didn't see it. I was. It can't have been Colonel Elric, because when the transmutation went off, he was in my arms struggling to get at Colonel Archer, while screaming at our men not to go into the city. It had to have been an alchemist; only a very skilled alchemist could have pulled off something like that. And I admit, I have not had enough experience with the colonel to pass much of a judgment, other than the fact that he's an alchemist. But my opinion doesn't matter at this point. What matters is fact: Colonel Elric was not in the city when it happened. Whether he helped set it up or had any connection to it, I can't say. But he did not commit the actual transmutation."

"Vell...see?" Francis grinned. "Ze news, it is not all bad, right? Zat is vhat 'appens vhen you pay too much attention to silly rumor." He had seen plenty of false rumors in his home country, he knew what they were like. "Besides, I am sure General Mustang vould not 'ave put 'im in charge if 'e were ze traitor of ze east, as you say."

A groan rose from Marie next to him, which only served to spark his curiosity further. "Don't even get me started on Roy Mustang," she sighed. "Trust me, don't try to figure these things out. Just do your job, keep an eye on whoever's supposed to be watching you, and salute like crazy. That's how you get ahead in this place."

"Salute..." Francis hesitated on the word, trying to remember the meaning. The language here, he'd gotten most of, but he still had to dance around a few words. "Oh, zat t'ing vith ze hand in ze face! Vhy do ve do zat, anyvay? In my 'ome country, ve did not 'ave such silly t'ings."

Josef fielded that one, and Erwin noticed the sly grin on his face as he did. "It's a sign of loyalty to whoever happens to be above you on the chain of command. It's supposed to represent your subservience to your master. Saluting tells him that, on his command, you would go so far as to slap yourself in the face as hard as you can."

Francis blinked his eyes a couple times as he struggled with this information. "...I see...I t'ink..." As the train finally rolled into the East City Station, Erwin stifled a chuckle. They were finally here. It was time to see what the mission ahead would be like.

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The sun was starting to set as the team finally unloaded from the train. Eva slept soundly on Erwin's back, with her arms draped over his shoulders and her legs carried under his arms. Colonel Elric led the way, gathering the team as they stepped out onto the platform. A chuckle passed his lips when he saw Eva and Erwin, and the infiltration officer thought for sure the colonel would call him on it, but nothing ever came.

The platform was hard and concrete beneath them. To the sides, it dropped straight down into the grass that ran alongside the train tracks. However, on the side opposite the tracks themselves, there was a staircase leading down to the main street. This would be the direction they would be traveling, in order to pass into the city itself.

"East City," the colonel started, "home to the chimeras we've come for. Well..." a couple seconds passed, as his hand ran up to the back of his head, "...um...pretend I said something really motivational here!"

"Yes, sir!"

The colonel laughed, which certainly didn't help his position with his men. He wanted to get started as soon as possible, but he wasn't sure how feasible that was. Someone needed to go ahead to East HQ and secure a place for the men to stay tonight, and he really didn't want it to be him. He was already beginning to see what Mustang loved so much about delegating work. "Alright, let's get moving. Lieutenant Dubois?"

"Sir!" Francis's legs snapped together at attention. His right hand flew up and immediately struck himself in the face, bruising his nose and striking himself with enough force the he toppled over backwards. As he stumbled back, he found the platform ended where he thought there was room to move, and he fell four feet onto the soft grass underneath. The fall was not wholly without incident, however, as his head struck a rock, leaving him to curl himself together with his hands on his throbbing head, trying to figure out why he had just done that.

Silence fell over the men, as Erwin strained as hard as he could not to laugh. The colonel's eyes watched over the foundation, looking for Francis, before he turned his head to Erwin, the closest soldier to him. "What the hell is his problem?"

"I don't know, sir," Erwin chuckled. "I wouldn't worry too much about it."

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Watching the men from above, on a rooftop just across the street from the station, a large, muscular man in a green duster grinned a sharp, toothy grin. The soldiers had arrived, and the sun would go down soon. Very soon now, his beasts would be released. These creatures followed his command like his own personal soldiers, and they would roam the streets once more this night. He saw the boy with the golden hair, and he recognized him easily. That face had been burned into his memory after the horrors that had followed his arrival in Liore.

"Soon, Elric," the beast man snarled. "Very soon, I will hold your head in my claw, dripping that accursed blood of yours." Turning away from the edge, the creature raced back towards the city, leaping from the top of the roof and sailing through the air like an animal, to land powerfully on the next rooftop. The roof cracked with the force of his impact, but he didn't care. He was too busy planning his next move. It was time to release the hounds.

"Careful there," a soft, delicate voice called out behind him. "Wouldn't want to slip, now would you? We've put a lot of work into you, Larson, I won't have you throwing all our efforts away." The creature, Larson, turned its head to see the woman behind him. A woman with crimson hair sat delicately upon the rooftop he had landed on, and his mind strained for a minute to figure out how she had found him this far up. Seventy feet off the ground was not a tourist location, and the roofs only got higher and higher as they got further into the city.

"Lust," the beast snarled, "that trick is getting old. It's about time you got here, Greed stopped coming down two days ago. Do you realize how boring it is with that old fool down there? All he ever talks about is that stupid child of his."

A deep, sultry laugh emanated from Lust's throat, and she rose to her feet. Larson could easily make out the smirk on her face just before she spoke, but his eyes were drawn easier to the gentle waving of her hips, as she crossed slowly towards him. His claws tensed, ready to be used in the event that she struck, but he couldn't help but feel that wasn't the intent of her movement. "You won't have to worry too much about that for long. The boss is here, and he's going to see to it that everything goes fine. You just do your job and take care of Elric, okay? After that...well..." She slipped the fingers of her right hand delicately over the man's chest, while her left arm moved seductively around his neck, pressing her face only inches from his. "We'll see about finding you a more...comfortable...arrangement. You could go so far, wolfy boy. You just need the right group."

Just before her lips could collide with his, she pulled back, making her way back across the rooftop. Larson sighed; it was always like this with Lust. She was the master of playing men across her fingers, she could dominate the world with a wink and a grin. "Do what you will," the creature snarled. "All I want is Elric. After that...well, we'll see." He wasn't sure just what she had offered, but part of him admitted it sounded intriguing. Perhaps...perhaps after Elric, he could turn his wrath on the rest of the military. Liore was not beaten, this one truth beat strongly in his heart. Liore would stand for as long as its men remembered, for as long as men like Larson continued to carry the fight.

"Good dog," Lust smirked, as she walked away from Larson across the rooftop. "Now, go rally your numbers. And remember, big man...I'll be watching." She cast one last glance back at him, before her body began to fade. Larson took a step back in surprise, not expecting to see it. He had never seen her do this before, and it had left him completely speechless. As he watched, her body turned transparent, fading into the air around it. It took only five seconds for her to fade, vanishing into thin air as though she were never there.


	10. Chapter 9: Eruption, Part One

**Chapter Nine: Eruption Part One**

"COLONEL!" Footsteps sloshed through puddles of water, disrupted by the sound of rain falling around them. The alleyway was dark and cold, and as Lieutenant Sinclair came closer, the image before her horrified her. She had seen terrible atrocities in the war, but nothing as brutal, as truly savage as this. It looked as though an animal had done it.

She couldn't think. She couldn't breathe. She had seen his power firsthand, and she could feel terror growing within the very core of her being to see him lying here. Blood mixed with the puddles on the ground, falling from three horrible gashes in his chest. It looked as though claws had done that to him, large, vicious animal claws. With the horrors she'd seen this night, she didn't doubt it. His eyes were closed, his head tilted down to the side, and his entire right arm was bloody and mangled. It looked as though the flesh had been torn right off, and the muscles eviscerated. She could see the bone in his arm through the horrible wound, and she knew that was never a good sign. At least the bone wasn't broken, she sighed..He wasn't moving. She wasn't even sure he was breathing. What could do something like this to Colonel Elric?

"You idiot," she snarled to herself as tears dripped down her cheeks. She knew there wasn't any time to lose, as she started tearing up his red coat for bandages. There wasn't any time to go find help, she would have to improvise for now. She was a medical officer, she could tell just by looking the severity of his injuries. "Why did you go alone?"

Quickly removing the blood-stained black vest from his chest, she went to work wrapping the horrible gashes in his chest. She could feel his breathing weakening, and it was a sound that sent a chill down her spine. "Come on, Colonel, don't die on me." She knew she had to get him out of here, back to the others. She knew she had to get his wounds taken care of, and she didn't have the supplies to do that. "Don't you dare die on me." Lifting him into her arms, with his wounds bandaged with his own red coat to keep the pressure on them, she started back out of the alleyway. Racing as fast as her feet could carry her, needing to get him back to East HQ, she didn't even notice the imposing figure above her, standing on the rooftop.

For there, standing proudly with fresh blood still dripping from his bestial claws, was the monster known as Larson. As he watched them go, his tongue gently licked the blood from his hands, just before he threw his head back and let out a howl that echoed across the city, resonating in every chimera that heard it. His team was being called back. It was not a howl of retreat; this, as they had expected, was a howl of victory.

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One hour earlier, at East HQ, the team had set back out. They had arrived in East City only three hours before, and it came as a surprise that Ed was so eager to get on with the mission. Panzlef, for one, had expected time to rest before they went chimera hunting. And he was the first to groan, once rain began to fall, as they found themselves sloshing through the downpour.

Four pairs of boots sloshed through the torrentious downpour. "So here's what I don't get," Erwin muttered to Josef as they walked through the windy storm. "Why am I here? You've got the gun, the colonel has his alchemy, and Eva can track folks. Why do I have to walk through Hell with you guys?"

Josef shrugged his shoulders as they sloshed through the dark, cold street. The city was quiet tonight, casting an eerie shadow over the whole team. Francis and Marie had been left behind at East HQ, due to the simple fact that an engineer and a medic had no place on the front lines. But neither did an intelligence officer, Erwin thought.

"You're here," Colonel Elric responded, "because an intelligence officer who doesn't know anything is useless." Erwin winced when he heard the colonel's voice. He'd thought he had spoken quiet enough not to be heard.

"Yes, sir!" he quickly replied. "I'll remember that, sir!" His head dropped lower in the group, as they walked. Ignoring Josef's snicker, he continued on through the murky street, hoping to let his embarrassment fade as time passed. "So, these chimeras," he quickly changed the subject, "what kind of chimera are we talking about? I've heard some of the rumors from back in Central." There were stories flying around Central still, about the mysterious Lab 5 and strange beasts that escaped from it. Erwin had chosen to disregard those, however, as they seemed more like the wild ravings of people who had seen too much combat. A man who could turn his own skin as hard as a rock? Even taking alchemy into consideration, that was pushing it. He had also heard rumors from Liore, that there were chimeras running their streets the night before the war had begun. But the words of the war's defeated needed to be taken with a grain of salt; those in the wrong often searched for ways of justifying their crimes.

"Can't say I know," the colonel replied. "Mustang didn't tell me much. He never does. I've seen two kinds of chimera in my life, though. Depending on how skilled the guy we're looking for is, it could be anything. In most cases, you're looking at a basic combination of two animals. Like a lion with the hindquarters and tail of a crocodile." Ed still remembered that one. The horrible lion/crocodile merger had been one of the false prophet Cornello's pets. The first time he had ever gone to Liore, when he and his brother found themselves caught up in Cornello's lies, he had attempted to silence them. Using a false Philosopher's Stone, a red stone made using the highly toxic Red Water put under a great amount of pressure, he had deceived the townspeople into believing he was a holy prophet, sent by the sun god Lito to lead them into prosperity. The lion/crocodile chimera was one of his pets, which he unleashed on Ed as he stood, trying to obtain what he thought to be the Stone, and trying to unveil the deception for Rose, who watched in horror through it all.

Ed had beaten the chimera using his automail limbs and a transmuted spear with a wooden handle and a golden blade, his favorite weapon to transmute. He had also used those limbs, replacements for the arm and leg he had lost in a failed attempt to resurrect his dead mother years before, to reach Rose. He had shown her the price of trying to raise the dead, and though she tried so hard to disregard his words, he had touched her in a way that frightened her. To this day, he still wasn't certain why he had cared so much. He had gone to Liore in search of the Philosopher's Stone, in the hopes that he could restore his brother Alphonse to his body. Fighting Cornello was an unfortunate necessity, but Rose had nothing to do with any of it. Perhaps he took pity on her, for the way Cornello was taking advantage of her losses. Everything she had was taken from her in a string of nasty luck. She was probably the most unlucky woman Ed had ever met. Maybe that was it. Or perhaps he just admired how strongly she stuck to it, and the way she stood up to him. Maybe he'd just wanted to prove that he was right, after the argument they had carried shortly before. Or maybe...just maybe, Al was right. Those words they had spoken to each other that day on the island.

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It had been five years back, on a solitary island near the town of Dublith. Edward and his brother Alphonse had been brought to this island for the second time by their teacher, Izumi Curtis. She had wanted them to remember the lessons she had taught them here before, when she stranded them for one month to learn one of the basic principles of alchemy: All is One, One is All.

It had been a week into their stay here, and Al was away gathering food. Ed had been fishing, but he found himself distracted in the sandy beach by the shoreline. He didn't know what had brought it to mind, what made him think back the way he did, but the soft sand reminded him of their journeys in the East. As he stared transfixed into the soft, gentle sand, he remembered everything he'd left behind. Liore kept springing back to mind, but he didn't understand why. It hadn't been his favorite experience. He'd been mobbed, imprisoned, attacked, and he would've been executed if he hadn't been such a skilled alchemist. But every time he tried to turn his mind back to fishing, he would find himself back there.

While waiting for the fish to bite, he found himself a stick. Idly, he guessed out of boredom, he began to trace circles in the sand. First a transmutation circle, out of old habit. It'd been so long since he'd actually drawn one of those things; his ability to perform alchemy without one had left him rusty. Next came a symbol he'd seen too often, that he had grown to loathe: a circle of a snake, eating its own tail, with two triangles in the center, one overlapping the other and both facing in opposite directions, and two wings floating above the top. This was the symbol of the Ouroborous, the snake that eats itself. This mark was on every Homonculus he had the displeasure of encountering, and he quickly rubbed it out.

Bored, he continued to trace his circles. But soon, he found that it wasn't circles he was drawing anymore. A line there, a circle there...two little circles for the eyes...and there, he marked the bangs carefully, remembering the gentle pinkness in them. A soft, gentle chin, and two little ears...and there, a little nose, and a couple lines for the mouth...

"Brother?" Ed's whole body froze at the sound of his brother's voice. He heard him clunking through the trees, his boots leaving loud footsteps against the rocks on the ground. Alphonse Elric, currently bound to a suit of armor as he walked out from the forested underbrush, held a few berries in his left gauntlet as he walked. "I found a few berries, but not much else. Most of the traps still haven't caught anything." Ed moved quickly, trying to cover up his drawing, but he wasn't fast enough. "What's that you're making?"

"Nothing!" Ed exclaimed, but he wasn't fast enough. He was caught, and he knew it. Shoveling sand over it to destroy the image, he hoped that Al hadn't seen, but he knew deep down that he had.

"Ohhh, I get it," Al laughed. "You were drawing Winry, weren't you?" The moment passed in silence, as Ed struggled with his own feelings. He wasn't sure whether he should deny it or leave it alone. "You know, Brother, you really should talk to her. She really cares about you. It's not difficult to see, and I know you care about her."

"Yeah, she cares," Ed grumbled to himself. "She cares about my AUTOMAIL plenty." Al could feel the hurt in Ed's voice as he grumbled. He had tried many times to talk to him about Winry, but to no avail. Ed never wanted to talk about it, and every time the subject came up, he sounded hurt. Over the past year, Al had deduced Ed's feelings, that Winry had simply paid too much attention to his automail, and not enough to his flesh and blood self.

"Brother..." he started, but he didn't know where to go from there. But if Ed really felt this hurt towards Winry, why would he be drawing her. "Brother...was that Winry you were drawing?"

"Al, just forget it," Ed remarked. "It was nothing. And stop bugging me about Winry, okay?" He was starting to get agitated, and that frightened Al. Al knew very well that his older brother was prone to fits of anger and ranting when he got like this, and here on this island, there was no one else around for him to rage to. "Winry and I...look, if it happens, it happens, okay?" He started off into the woods, fuming in his own anger. "I'm going to go check the traps. Why don't you try fishing? You could probably just stand with your breastplate open and wait for fish. It'd be faster than this stupid pole!"

"Brother, wait!" Al started after Ed, not wanting to drop this. "Every time I ask you about Winry, you get into a huff like this. What happened?"

Ed stopped moving, his fists curled in anger as he struggled with his own emotions. "I don't want to talk about it. Yeah, I like Winry, okay? Or I used to. She's changed, Al. I've changed. You've changed. Everyone's changed. Nothing is like it was back then, and that's just something we all have to accept."

"Brother..."

"I'm sure," Ed started, "that Winry will find herself a great guy. Someone who can put up with her loving machines more than she loves him."

"Brother..." Al repeated himself, but found himself speechless. He really didn't know what to say.

"But," Ed continued, "that's not going to be me, okay? I don't have time for it anyway. We don't have time for it. We're trying to find a way to put you back in your body, remember? Romance can wait, there's no time for it. AND," he was starting to rant. Al had expected this. He was starting to get angry, and saying things he didn't mean. "Even IF the time DOES come, I can do better. I can find someone...I don't know...someone who's not so violent. Someone nicer, someone..."

"Someone like Rose?" The name sent a chill down Ed's spine when he heard it. He couldn't think. He couldn't breathe. He simply stood there, struggling to get his thoughts back in order. "I'm not stupid, brother. I saw the way you were looking at her in Liore. The same way you used to look at Winry."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ed snarled through gritted teeth. He was trying with every ounce of strength in his body not to think about it.

"Brother...Edward." The sound of his name sent another chill through Ed. Alphonse so rarely called him by his name; it always meant that the conversation had just turned serious. "You can't lie to me. I didn't miss the worry in your eyes when you saw how Cornello was using her. I still remember the way you turned away from her when she started to cry. You can call it whatever you want but I know you better than that, brother. You couldn't bear to see her hurt, could you?"

"Shut up," Ed was getting defensive, and that was making him mean. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"That's what you were drawing, wasn't it?" Al had finally caught him. "You were drawing Rose."

Cornered like a rat, Ed found himself getting angrier. He was turning mean, and he knew it was childish but his anger had risen to the point he didn't care. "SHUT UP!" he exploded. "You don't...I don't know what you're talking about! Just leave me alone!" With those words, he took off into the forest, running with all the speed his automail left leg could give him. He didn't know where he was going; he knew there was no way off this island. He didn't care, he just couldn't be here. He was angry, he was defensive, and more than anything, he was afraid. It couldn't be true; it could never be true. Al's words...they were wrong. They were dead wrong, and he knew it. He couldn't love her. Everything he loved suffered, everything he touched, everything he got too close to, would hurt, would suffer, would die. His mother, Alphonse, Nina...no. He wouldn't let that happen again. For her sake, he couldn't love her.

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"Colonel?" Ed was snapped out of his memory by the slightly unshaky voice of Lieutenant Erwin Panzlef. "I'm sorry to interrupt your daydream, sir, but I believe we have company." Ed looked up from his distracted thoughts, casting his gaze around the street around him. The lights had gone out in the buildings around them. The only remaining light was the glow of the streetlamp above them, and the dim circle of light it cast around the unit. He could hear snarls now, the smacking jaws of creatures in the dark night around them. And then he saw them, two glittering eyes in the dark just outside the ring of light.

"Dammit," Ed cursed. He'd gotten too distracted by his memories, and walked into an ambush. "Everyone, get ready! This is going to be rough." He hadn't even finished speaking, before the first of the beasts lunged.


	11. Chapter 10: Eruption, Part Two

**Chapter Ten: Eruption, Part Two**

A sigh escaped the lips of Lieutenant Marie Sinclair, as she paced back and forth in the second floor's eastern corridor. She hated not knowing what was going on, and it made her feel as though she were left behind on purpose. She couldn't help but be curious; she wanted to see these chimeras up close, with her own eyes. She'd never seen one before, only the wounds their claws had left on soldiers from time to time.

As she turned around in the corridor for the fifteenth time, she felt a strong pair of hands fall on her shoulders. Looking up, she found herself staring into the eyes of Lieutenant Francis Dubois, who could easily read the confused expression on her face. "Calm yourself, madame. You vill leave a trail in ze carpet."

Marie sighed. "I just...I don't like being stuffed up in here. We're supposed to be a part of the unit too, right? Why aren't we out there with Colonel Elric? And...and why are we even here in the first place!" She felt herself getting angry, but she had trouble caring. She needed to vent, and Francis was a decent enough person to vent to. "I mean, we're standing in a military installation. East City is a military city; we're in a military base right now! I can hardly believe that they needed a handful of soldiers from Central to take care of this problem when they've got a military branch STATIONED here. There is no reason for us to be here."

"That's what I said," a man spoke from around the corner. As he stepped into view, his short, blond hair and dark eyes were easily visible. Dressed in the standard military garb, he withdrew a small cigarette from his mouth before he spoke. "Colonel Dave Madison's the name." Marie quickly snapped to her salute. Francis, disoriented, whipped his left hand up over his eyes, not realizing the implication.

"FRANCIS!" Marie whipped Francis's hand away quickly, with a slightly frightened glare in her eyes. "Don't do that! Saluting with your left hand is insulting; it conveys disrespect. The colonel could have you court-martialed for that!" Francis's eyes boggled at the new information. Clearly he still had much to learn, and ignorance could be dangerous.

Colonel Madison only laughed. Standing with his back against the wall, he chuckled. "Don't worry too much about it. You guys won't be here long, and I can tell by your friend's face that he's not from around here. Frankly, right hand, left hand, I couldn't care less. You could give me the one-finger salute, I wouldn't care. You're not my men."

Francis, confused by the colonel's words, started to ask. "One finger–"

"Don't," Marie hissed, and that was the end of that.

Madison, turning to gaze out the window at the downpouring rain, returned to the point. "In any case, I asked the same question when they told me they were shipping you folks out here. A few chimeras is nothing compared to the power of the military. I could have this cleaned up before long, but General Mustang was insistent. He pulled rank on me."

Francis and Marie exchanged glances, attempting to process this new information. "Mustang insisted?" Marie asked. "I don't understand. Why does it matter who takes care of the chimera problem? He made it sound to us like it was some dire emergency."

Madison laughed. "You don't know Mustang very well, do you? He says what it takes and he does what he wants. He called it a "learning experience" for your colonel, but off the record, I think there's more to it. I think he's pushing for some public attention, by being the guy that cleaned up the problem."

"Vhat do you mean?" Francis asked. "Ze general isn't even 'ere. 'Ow could 'e get recognition vit'out being 'ere?"

"Because he sent you guys here," Madison pointed out. "You're his little pet project, and he's trying to show the nation just how good his project is. Most likely, he's doing this for the political race. You're from Central, I'm sure you've heard about the controversy in the Parliament."

Francis once more looked like the odd one out, so Marie explained for him. "Yeah, I've heard about it. There's been a conflict in the Parliament over the last four years, trying to determine who will succeed Fuhrer Bradley. As the fuhrer had not left behind any specific instructions for after his death, the Parliament's been faced with the issue of what the people want."

Madison nodded his head in confirmation. "Most of East City is pushing for General Hakuro. He's a good man. A hero to the people of the East for years. The general led us to victory against the savages of Liore, not to mention countless other uprisings he's quashed in other parts of the country. I, personally, had the pleasure of serving with General Hakuro during the early days of the war in Liore."

Marie remembered Hakuro well, though her memories were not as positive as Colonel Madison's seemed to be. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Granted."

Marie sighed. "I served during the war in Liore as well. I took care of our wounded here in East HQ. But...with all due respect, colonel, the General Hakuro I remember wasn't as heroic as you suggest. We had a prisoner in the lower floors, a young woman from Liore that they were attempting to get information from. Every so often, they would send me in to treat her wounds. From cuts and gashes to burns, even a broken leg or arm from time to time. Maybe my memories of him are tainted by those images, but..."

"Oh, come now," Madison snickered as he turned back to face Marie and Francis. "You're not actually starting to feel sorry for those savages, are you? They attacked and murdered our men for no reason. They picked the fight, then tried to play a pity game because they lost. And don't you forget what happened to Colonel Archer's battalion. They're animals, Lieutenant. Wild beasts and monsters deserve no remorse. You would do well to remember that."

"Yes, sir," Marie surrendered.

Confused and not knowing much of what was being discussed, Francis attempted to return to the point. "So, vait, if General 'Akuro is so vell loved, vhy is zere a problem? Vhy 'asn't 'e been made fuhrer?"

"Because," Madison sighed, "not everyone is a fan of the general. Therein lies the controversy. The public is torn between the two candidates, General Hakuro and General Mustang. There are many, especially in the outlying villages, who believe in Mustang. Insurrectionists and idiots who would hand the nation over to the very man that murdered our beloved fuhrer." Marie could see Madison's hands balling up in anger as he spoke.

Marie sighed, not knowing what to follow. She'd heard so many different stories and so many different tellings, she wasn't sure who was right. "I've heard that the fuhrer was attempting to oppress the people, and that's why Mustang attacked him. I don't know if that's true or not...it's just one of the stories I've heard."

"Insurrectionist lies," Madison snarled. "They devise all manner of stories to hide their guilt. I don't know about you, but I have met Fuhrer Bradley face to face. He was a good man, a strong man. He truly believed in our nation, and he only wanted what's best for our people. I am so sick of those damned insurrectionists and their accusations. I will not stand by and watch a man like Mustang destroy our country. I would sooner die."

CRASH

The window burst open in a shower of falling glass before anyone could register what had happened. Madison turned quickly back, just in time to see the gaping maw of a massive serpent, before its jaws snapped shut on his head.

"COLONEL!" Marie freaked, falling back on her butt as she gazed at the monstrosity that had shattered through. A massive anaconda snaked its body around Madison's torso and ripped its head upwards, tearing the skull from his neck and swallowing it whole, while Marie watched in horror at the beast before her. Vile, bony wings protruded from its body, with leathery membranes and disgusting little hairs growing across them, the wings of a bat grown to a 20-foot wingspan.

Francis moved quickly in front of Marie, moving into a position she had never seen before. His left foot poised delicately behind his right, while he held his hands up before him. His hands were curled into fists, save for his first two fingers, which stood proudly up from the rest. She didn't know this position, didn't understand its meaning. "Run avay," Francis ordered back to her. "Get 'elp. Ve may need it."

The anaconda opened its maw, its fangs hungry for more flesh. As it turned its gaze to Francis and Marie, all she could think about was running. The creature hissed its deep, throaty hiss, before it lunged, whipping through the air with its 30-foot tail end snaking across the ground, slithering faster than any snake Marie had seen. As its head pushed forward to devour, Francis pivoted on his heel, bringing his left foot up and around and slamming it down on the creature's head, smashing it into the ground and pressing it there. "Go! Now!" He could already see the silhouettes in the distance. More were coming.

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"Panzlef!" A shot rang out through the night, echoing in the dark, dead street. A beast, a lion with the wings of a hawk sprouting from its back, fell sharply to the ground with blood pouring from a nasty wound in the side of its head, carved out by a small piece of lead. Smoke rose from the rifle of Lieutenant Josef Grueder, but before he could react, he was bodily slammed to the ground from behind, trapping his weapon beneath his own torso.

He could hear the snarl of the beast above him, a gray wolf split at the midsection, with a snake's tail end coming out the back. He felt the dripping of its saliva against the back of his neck. Quickly, he tried to lift his left arm up, but the creature had pinned it down with its paw. The beast opened its maw, raising its jaws high, before it–

Another gunshot, and the beast fell to the side, losing its grip on Grueder. Panzlef stood confidently enough with his handgun smoking, but the freaked expression on his face, the large eyes and frightened sweat, was easy enough to read. "Chimeras?" he asked out of confusion, though the answer was obvious.

A vicious roar cut through the air like a blade through butter. Another ripped through from behind, and then another from the left. These creatures were everywhere, with their golden eyes glittering in the dark. Grueder and Panzlef backed towards Massner, surrounded by the creatures around them. A lion came into view on the left, a tiger with vicious bull horns on the right. In front, a massive bear with a snake head and neck glittering out, ten feet long from shoulders to snout.

Another shot, and the bear backed up a step, but it wasn't enough. The lion, the tiger, both lunged, with snarling teeth ready to tear into whatever fleshy creature they could lock their jaws on. Panzlef fell back, staring up into the mouth of death in the air above him. The air felt cold and dim, as time seemed to stop. The beast hung in the air above him, ready to strike, and Panzlef could feel his life about to drain away.

CLAP

A spike tore up from the street beneath, puncturing straight through the lion's torso. More rippled up from the ground, in a semicircle around the streetlamp. The bear, the tiger, all manner of creatures were punctured by these deadly spikes lifting from the ground. Snarls and agonized roars could be heard all around them, as the chimeras faced the power of the pavement beneath their claws.

One hand pressed against the pavement. One figure crouched at the central point, between all spikes. As he rose, Colonel Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist, gazed at the destruction his power had brought about. The creatures he had crushed here were powerful, but nothing compared to the power of the Homonculi, power he had witnessed firsthand. Compared to Greed, Wrath, Sloth, Envy...compared to them, these creatures were nothing. He had faced them all. "Like I told Mustang," Edward's voice resonated through the minds of his soldiers, "I can handle this myself."

"My god," Panzlef's voice shook as he tried so hard to speak. "That...that was..."

"Never seen a State Alchemist in action, eh Erwin?" Grueder smirked, though he was not fool enough to lower his guard. There could still be creatures among the spikes. Another clap was heard, Ed could be seen crouching back down and pressing his hand back against the pavement, and the spikes lowered themselves back into the road below. Soon, there was no sign they had ever been there, save for the punctured chimeras that lay dead in the street.

The night was still and quiet once more, and after two minutes of cautious watch, the team started back towards East HQ. Grueder sighed as they walked, scratching his head. "Something didn't seem right about that. They had us clearly outnumbered, so why did they take so long to strike?"

Panzlef shuddered at the question, not wanting to think about it. "Maybe they weren't as hungry as they thought they were?"

"No," Ed answered. "You're right, something did seem off about that. It was almost as if they were testing us." Looking up, he saw something in the distance, something that made him freeze. There was something up higher, something stalking them from the rooftops. He could almost see it, but it was just too small to make out. Whatever it was, it looked big, and almost human.

"Colonel? Is something wrong?" Panzlef asked carefully.

"...no, it's nothing," Ed responded after a moment's thought. The figure had vanished once Ed spotted him, and he couldn't be sure he had actually seen anything at all. "Head back to HQ. There's something I need to check out."

"But colonel, are you sure that's–"

"That's an order," Ed remarked, before he raced down the alleyway to his left. He was sure he'd seen something, and he was going to find out what it was. He had to admit, though, being able to get rid of unnecessary followers with just those few words was definitely convenient. Perhaps there really was something to this colonel thing after all.

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A whistle escaped the lips of Josef Grueder, as he passed through the gate. "What the hell happened here?" Bodies littered the field outside East HQ. Numerous chimeras lay dead on the ground, with the corpses of a few soldiers. It looked as though another battle had taken place here, though it appeared to have been fairly one-sided. A chimera assault was no match for the military force of East City.

"'ey boys! You missed ze party!" There was only one voice they knew with that accent, and to no one's surprise, Francis Dubois came running out the front door, followed shortly by Marie Sinclair. There were several cuts across Francis's left cheek, but aside from that, he looked fairly unharmed. Marie followed behind him, lacking even the cuts that Francis had.

"We were attacked," Marie explained. "Three different angles at once. One wave came through the windows, two from outside."

Erwin's eyes followed the ground to one of the chimeras laying dead in the grass. Taking a few steps forward, his eyes had little difficulty in the bright light of the HQ identifying its form. It was a horse, with a snake head and neck emerging from its shoulders. "Whoever this guy is," he started, "he seems to like snakes. He's sticking them onto everything."

"Something bothers me," Josef thought aloud. His last point had been a good one, so Erwin stood back to hear what he was going to make this time. "There are too many of them for this to be an amateur operation. It almost looks as though they're soldiers being trained for war. I've fought my share of battles, but I've never seen anything like this. So many chimeras, in this part of the country..."

"Huh," Erwin wondered. "Y'know, you have a point. This guy is certainly making a lot of these things. As I recall, a chimera is an alchemical fusion of two animals, right? So where's he getting the parts? How the heck is he smuggling so many animals into East City?" He pondered for a moment, taking a seat on the grass. "And where would he be making these beasts? I'm sure someone would notice if there were chimeras wandering around their neighborhood."

"I'm sorry to interrupt," Marie asked, "but where is Colonel Elric? I thought he went with you?"

Eva waved off the question. "The colonel's gone off on his own. I'm sure he's fine."

Erwin nodded his head in agreement. "I think he might have saw something. He probably didn't want us getting in his way."

Francis whistled. "Sure 'ope it wasn't ze Dark Volf."

Josef raised an eyebrow at Francis's words. "Dark Volf? What the heck is a Volf?"

"Wolf?" Erwin asked. "Dark Wolf?" Francis nodded his head. "What's the Dark Wolf?"

Francis turned his head back at the headquarters for a moment. "I spoke vit' some of ze soldiers stationed 'ere. Zey tell stories of ze Dark Volf, ze most vicious of ze chimera predators in ze city. Zey say 'e takes on ze form of a man, to lure 'is prey into 'is claws. And vhen 'e least expects, 'ow you say, Vam!"

"Faerie tales," Josef scoffed. "Nothing to be concerned about."

"Still..." Marie sounded worried. "Maybe we should go after him. I mean...it's not safe out there. Whether or not this 'Dark Wolf' thing is really out there, there's still all sorts of chimeras that could still be lurking in the shadows. We should go find him; it's not safe."

"Tell you what," Eva smiled. "I'll go see if I can't track him down, okay? You guys...go inside, catch a break. I'll be back in three minutes, tops." She laughed, but before she could move, she was cut off by another voice.

"I'm going too," Marie insisted. "No one should be out there alone, alright? You boys can come or go, but I'm not staying here."

Eva sighed, recognizing that it would be futile to argue. "Fine, come along if you must. But I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't slow me down, okay?"

"In boot camp, I got the record for distance running," Marie grinned. "Don't you worry about me."

"Eva!" Erwin climbed back to his feet, from his crouched position inspecting the body of the horse/snake chimera. Walking towards her, he drew the small handgun from his holster and pressed it carefully into her hands. "Take this, just to be safe. You don't know what you'll run into out there."

Eva caught Erwin's eyes, returning the glance for only a couple seconds before she took the gun in her hands. "Thanks, Erwin. You're always watching out for me." She glanced back at Marie, then tossed her head at the gate. "Come on, let's get going. We'll have the colonel back here before you can say "Fullmetal"."

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The figure was definitely moving now. Ed's boots splashed through puddles in the ground as he raced after the figure. Most of its body was concealed by something large and green that it was wearing around it, but he could tell just by looking that it was big. Humanoid, no doubt, but more than that, it was simply bulky. It kinda reminded him of Major Armstrong, the Strong Arm Alchemist, if he was still a major, that is.

The creature leapt from rooftop to rooftop, leading Edward down a winding trail through streets and up and down the roads, before it disappeared entirely from sight. "Dammit," Ed cursed, for he had lost the beast. He found himself standing in the dim light of a streetlamp, in the middle of a wide, main street. As he cast his gaze around to figure out where the heck he was, he noticed several bodies lying all around the road. Chimera beasts lay littered across the road, with various puncture wounds through their body. Ed's eyes blinked a few times before he registered the faded creatures. "Dammit!" he cursed louder. He knew where he was; the creature had led him in a friggin' circle! These were the chimeras HE HAD KILLED.

"Frustrating, isn't it?" A voice whispered from the shadows, a familiar sound that sent a chill down Ed's spine. The sound ran his memories back, and as he tried to deny it, he knew that this time he couldn't. He was here and this was real, and that voice was the very same. The voice of something he had been trying since he'd seen her to deny was true.

The faded light didn't do her justice, as her feet stepped delicately out of the shadows. The woman that had met him only a couple days ago, that had sent him spiraling into horror. With tender, black heels lifting her feet from the ground, and black, leather pants that rose up to meet her satin, black top, she slipped out of the shadows of Edward's memory, and back into the horrifying truth of his reality.

This creature whose existence he hadn't even known now stood before him with horrifying clarity. No matter how he'd tried to deny her, how hard he'd tried to tell himself that it had been nothing more than a dream, this was her, standing proudly in the dim light of the streetlamp. It was real, it had been real, and now he could not deny that. The woman whose name had passed on without his even realizing she'd been there. Who now took the name that her brethren had given her, a name passed down through generations. Opening his mouth, he found only one word, one name, could slip past his lips. "Greed."


	12. Chapter 11: Eruption, Part Three

**Chapter Eleven: Eruption, Part Three**

The sound of footsteps echoed down the long, warm hallway. Windows shone on the right side, allowing the blazing heat of the sun to filter through into the brown, stony building. The village of Liore had seen a monumental upset just the previous night, and the people were not happy. A pair of brothers, one short and blond, the other dressed in a full suit of armor, had made an attempt to take the life of the prophet Cornello, the leader of the town.

The brothers had been captured when, by the power of the sun god Lito, six statues moved of their own volition and subdued the two. The taller one in the armor had been smashed to pieces. The short one was now being held prisoner, in the tower above. Or, at least, that was what the people believed. That was what he believed.

"Rose? Are you okay?" The boy asked, when he found the young woman balled up in one of the pews, with her head resting on her knees. Soft, brown hair draped down her back, and those gentle, pink bangs of hers never failed to remind him of the delicate flower for which she'd been named. "What's wrong?"

The young woman, Rose, turned her attention up. As her eyes fell on the friend beside her, she quickly turned her head away. "...I don't know..." she swallowed, trying to clear her head. "Everything's been...it's just too much."

A gentle hand touched down on her shoulder. "So then tell me about it. What could be so bad?"

Rose looked up at the boy's gentle face, and it made her feel warm inside. She was frightened of everything she had seen the previous night. She was frightened of her boyfriend returning to life, but she wasn't sure why. But most of all, she was frightened of the blond kid shackled up in the tower; frightened of his words and the way he seemed to understand Cornello's miracles better than Cornello did. Frightened of the prophet's surprising turn to violence the previous night, and the expression she had seen on his face as he tried so hard to silence the kid. Edward, as she knew his name to be, had been in complete control of that situation, and that frightened her more than anything. If Cornello truly was a prophet from God, how could he have lost control so easily?

Doubts swirled in her brain, no matter how hard she tried to fight them off. She had seen her boyfriend's return to life, seen how well it was coming along. She'd heard his voice, speaking her name, and it had filled her whole body with hope. "If Ed knew," she had said, as she beheld the miracle. But she wondered now, why it was that her mind had moved so quickly to Ed. In that single moment, when she had gazed upon the silhouetted image of her resurrected boyfriend, why had her mind gone to Ed?

"There's just so much that's happened," Rose started, though she wasn't sure where she was going to go. "It's all too confusing."

The boy just smiled, trying to offer her a warm shoulder. "Rose, please, tell me what's going on in that head of yours. It won't help if you keep it all bottled up inside."

"It's just..." Rose wasn't sure how much to say. The very thoughts running through her brain went against everything she had come to know in her life. "What if...I don't know. What if he's right? If Father Cornello really hasn't been working miracles...god, I just don't know." She lay her head back down to rest on her knees, trying to rest her weary brain.

He? What he could she be talking about, the boy wondered. Surely, she couldn't possibly mean... "What do you mean, 'he'? You're not talking about the guy up in the tower, are you? The one that tried to murder Father Cornello?"

"Ed..." was the only response he got from her.

The boy sighed. He didn't know where this was going, and that worried him. "Rose...listen, I don't know what I can say to help you. If you need to talk, I'll be here." He smiled, trying to cheer her up. "Don't worry too much. It'll all be over soon."

Rose nodded her head, trying to fight forward a smile. No matter how hard she tried, though, she couldn't stop the tear from running down her eye. "Kain will be back soon."

"Y...yeah, he will," the boy smiled. He felt a slight pang inside, but he quashed it down easily enough. "And then everything will be okay."

"Yeah..." Rose struggled to keep a smile. "It will." She leaned over and gave the boy a peck on the cheek for his efforts, one that made him feel warm inside. He didn't know what was coming, and he had to admit, part of him was sad that she would be getting her lover back. She really was a beautiful girl, a sweet, amazing girl. But the best he could do, he supposed, was try to be here for her. "Thank you, Larson. Thanks for everything. Promise me that you'll always stay as sweet as you are now."

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The stone roof cracked under the beast-man's feet, from the impact of his landing. Larson Rieve, dressed in his tattered brown pants and open green duster, landed powerfully from a jump from the roof just across the alley. With a snarl on his lips, his claws gripped the side of the roof, looking down into the street below. There, his prey awaited, but it wasn't time to strike yet. He could see the devil below, and he felt his hunger beginning to well up inside of him. His transformation had begun, he could feel the changes beginning to take him. His humanlike self was fading, as many of the beast-man chimeras that Shou Tucker had created before him could do. His beast form was coming out, the powerful, deadly animal that made him unstoppable. As he felt the change growing within him, only one word slipped through his vicious, snarling teeth: "Elric."

Down in the street below, the eyes of Edward Elric fell upon those of a woman he had hoped only a nightmare. Her pale skin assaulted his eyes, a horrifying contrast with the raven black hair that streamed down her back. Dressed in tight, black pants, with a dark, green top without sleeves, she was an image of a past that Ed still didn't understand. But whatever had happened to her was neither here nor now. He knew Homonculi well enough; he would not be decieved.

"You let me die," she narrowed her eyes, stepping into the dim light beneath the downpour of rain. There was anger in her voice, and a hint of betrayal that Ed could catch easily enough. But he would not be tricked, he would not be fooled.

"You're not her," he spoke plainly, without hesitance. He had fought and killed Sloth with the same determined gaze in his eyes that he now showed Greed. "Don't talk as if you were Klose, because you're not. You took me by surprise last time, Greed, but that's it. I won't make the same mistake again." Without hesitation, his hands clapped together and his right pressed down against the pavement below. A flash of light grew from beneath his hand, and as he rose, a wooden shaft came up with his hand, finally ending in a shimmering, golden spearhead.

Greed's fists clenched in anger as he spoke. His words were cutting through her in ways he didn't even realize. Fire burned in her eyes as she spoke, and the pain in her voice was not something he had expected to hear. "Stop talking like you know me, you dumb boy. You don't know anything. Stop trying to hurt me; you've done more than you could possibly even realize, murderer."

"Don't call me that," Ed warned, as he took his grip on his spear. He wasn't ready to make the first move, he knew this. But he wanted a weapon, just to be on the safe side. If Greed's power was fire-related, as he guessed from their last meeting that it was, then she, like Mustang, was neutered in the rain. This gave him the upper hand, whether she realized it or not. However, there were other questions pressing on his mind; doubts which he needed an answer for. "Tell me, if you really know so much, how did she die?"

Greed laughed, a sound that sent a chill through Ed's body. "You really are clueless, aren't you, Edward? It's a shame, really. You don't even realize what a horrible little man you are. You don't even understand how many lives you've destroyed with your arrogant, selfish desires. You don't even realize the impact your life has had on the people of this nation. All you care about is your own goals, without another thought to your friends. Without giving a damn for the people that love you." A hateful, vindictive malice now burned in her voice, one that put Ed on his guard.

"What are you talking about?"

Greed took a step forward, into the dim light under the streetlamp. "Let me tell you a story, Edward. A story of a young girl, mourning the death of her sister. Angry and confused, she doesn't know where to turn, so she tries with every ounce of strength in her body to take the only thing that even matters anymore: revenge. She meets a boy, who she callously throws out of her life, forgetting him for the sake of her revenge.

However, that boy soon comes to be more than she first gave him credit for. Saving her life from a rushing river as she rolls out of control towards it, he earns her respect. But in refusing to help her get her revenge, she shows him only malice. Desperately, she tries on her own to get her vengeance, but when this fails, she is saved by a larger man with a lantern.

However, when she goes to thank this man, he knocks her unconscious. She discovers, to her horror, that not only is this man responsible for the murder of her sister, but also that he is about to do the same to her. But then, just before she can revisit the horror of her sister's death, HE comes in. Her hero from the river. He kills the bad guy, he saves the girl, and she is touched by his heroism. So touched that she goes to meet him when he leaves, dressed so girlish it embarrasses her just to set foot outside in, and with tears in her eyes, she watches him leave and waves, knowing he'll be back.

The hero leaves, but his impact is not soon forgotten. The girl can't forget the hero that saved her from the evil man. She knows in her heart that one day, he'll come back. She was touched by him, by the first boy she met that wasn't a whiny coward!" Ed could almost hear the old Klose's pride in Greed's voice when she said that bit, and it took him by surprise. "So she waits for him. She pays close attention to every scrap of info she can get from the big cities, about the boy who's getting more and more famous with every passing day. She even cuts out newspaper clippings, keeping them in her collection, in her room. She would pound the skull of any boy who made fun of her for it, so she has little trouble in that regard. And since the idiots boys are afraid of her, afraid to even go near her, she doesn't have to worry.

And so she waits. And waits. And waits. Sitting by her window, watching the trail that leads out of town. Wondering when her hero will be coming back to visit. A year passes, and another year. Three, four, five years go by, and still, no word of his coming back. She hears, every now and then, of his passing between Central City and Rizenpool. She knows he'd have to go through her village to make that trip, she knows that he'll be coming through...but he never does. Six years pass, and still, nothing. He never comes back.

Seven years pass, and finally, she hears word that he'll be coming back through. She's feeling weak now, weary of all the waiting she's done. Everyone in the village talks about her, the crazy girl who sits by the window. Everyone knows she's getting sick from waiting. But still, she stays by that window like a fool, expecting to see him again and wondering how long he'll keep her waiting.

Finally, she hears that he's passing through again, and this time she's not just going to sit by and wait for him. She barely has the strength to move her legs anymore, but she doesn't care. She's going to go see him, she's going to find him and he's going to come back. She leaves with what strength she has, to intercept him at the train station. But when she gets there, she comes upon a sight she can't believe.

Her hero is there, waiting at the station. But he's not alone. There's a woman there with him, smiling and laughing, and his attention is fixated entirely on her. And that's not the worst part, oh no, because resting in the woman's arms is a sight that makes her almost die to see: as she laughs with him, a baby sleeps soundly against her busom.

The girl sees this, and she can feel her strength beginning to give out. The truth that she had been denying to herself is there, for all to see. She has wasted her life waiting for her hero, who has forgotten about her. Who doesn't even care enough to visit, and who clearly has a woman of his own." Her fists clenched in anger as she spoke, and she took another step forward, another step towards Ed. "If he had come back, maybe he could have cleared it up. If he had given a damn about her, maybe she would be alive today. But in her grief, her strength gave way. She had allowed herself to get sick waiting for him, and he didn't even care enough to stop by ONCE. With her heart shattered into a thousand pieces, she died a few weeks later. Her life destroyed before it could even begin, taken before she could even be considered a woman, by one inconsiderate asshole who didn't care enough to even visit."

"So that's it," Ed began. "That's why you blame me? Because I had concerns of my own, and didn't have time for someone else's obsession!"

"You were too busy chasing your own, weren't you, Ed? The Philosopher's Stone? My master has told me everything of your self-indulgent search to prove that you were better than everyone else."

"You really don't know anything," Ed snarled. "I wasn't trying to prove anything. I wanted the stone for my brother–"

"Of course," Greed grinned. "That's the story you tell yourself so you can sleep better at night, isn't it? But I know the real reason; I know just the kind of person you are, Edward. Everything you have ever done, you have only ever done for yourself. From dear, sweet mommy, to your brother, the Philosopher's Stone. You didn't care about them at all, did you? Sure, I bet you started out working for them, but that's not what carried you, is it? You did it just to prove you could." Her words echoed in Ed's mind, and he could feel the anger beginning to burn inside him.

"You don't know anything!" He yelled at her, anger starting to carry him. He had never felt this angry before in his life; had never felt the guilt as strongly as he did now. What he had done to his mother...what he had done to Alphonse...she was striking up horrible memories that he had tried so hard to forget.

"I know that mine isn't the only life you destroyed, Edward Elric. I've learned so much from my master; he followed your actions with a great interest. I know that so many have suffered because of you. Al would have been better off if you had never tried to bring back your mother, wouldn't he?" Ed winced, trying not to show how deep her words were cutting. He had been the one to convince Al that it would work, that nothing would go wrong. Al was dead today, because Ed had been a fool. "And what about Liore? That worked out so well, didn't it?"

"You–" Ed was speechless. Every guilt he carried inside, Greed was turning against him. Every pain, every hurt, she was now thrusting down upon him. His own emotions twisted to become daggers through his heart.

"I suppose it doesn't matter," she grinned. "You'll be dead soon enough anyway, and no one else will suffer for your self-indulgent crimes."

Ed's right hand gripped the spear as firmly as he could. The guilt burning within him was weakening his resolve, but he wouldn't fall here. And he knew, perhaps better than she did, that her fire-based powers would have no sway here. "It's raining, Greed. If your Homonculus powers are fire-based, as I'm guessing from your little display that they are, you have no power here."

"I don't need it," she smiled. "I'm not the only phantom of your past, Edward. You're going to die tonight."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

The only response he could get, though, was her closing her eyes and swaying her body back and forth, as she called in a sing-song voice back to him, "You're going to di-ie, you're going to di-ie!"

Before he could ask any further, something big, powerful, and heavy crashed to the ground behind him. As he whirled around, his eyes fell upon a sight that terrified his every bone: a seven foot tall beast, humanoid with vicious black hair that ran all across its body and sharp, devastating claws at the end of each limb. However human its head may have once been, it had now changed, a powerful, ripping wolf's snout emerged from its face, and yellow eyes bored holes into Ed's soul. With muscles like an ox, tattered brown pants, and a green duster soaked in the rain, the creature threw back its head and let loose a powerful, deafening howl.

Over the horrifying sound, Ed could hear only one other: the voice of Greed, still singing behind him. "You're going to di-ie, you're going to di-ie!"

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"This way!" Eva pulled Marie by the wrist through the wet, dripping streets. Following Ed's tracks from where he had left the group, she had tried her best to make her way through. The rain was already covering up his moody bootprints however, and she was running out of options. One thing had given her a clue, and this was the sound of a powerful wolf's howl off to the west. Something major was going down, and she knew she had to get there quick.

"What was that sound?" Marie freaked. "That wolf thing Francis was talking about...do you think that might have actually been it!"

Eva stopped moving for a moment, her careful eyes watching down road ahead of her. "I don't know, but if it was, then we're about to meet it. Come on, we have to hurry. The colonel could be in danger!" Gripping Marie's wrist once more, she yanked the young doctor with her. All Marie could do was pray they were not too late.

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CRASH

Ed's back struck the wall behind him, as the beast forced him back into the alley. His spear was up in his hands, but the creature had pressed its jaws down around it. In one vicious display of power, the beast ripped its head back, tearing the wood apart and splitting the spear in twain. This also served the purpose of yanking Ed forward, but the mud served to work against the beast as it struck. Ed lost his footing in the mud, falling back and missing the creature's right claw by only a hair's breadth. Resting beneath the creature now, he struck quickly, jamming his right arm up into its flank.

His attack, regrettably, was to no avail. His fleshy right arm now served little purpose for offense, especially against a creature as powerful as this monstrosity. Bounding forward, the monster landed on all four claws, turning in the slick mud to face Ed as it skidded. A savage roar echoed forth from the monster's jaws, and before Ed had time to think, it was coming back for him.

Instinct kicked in as it opened its jaws to attack. Raising his right arm for defense, he realized his mistake just before the crucial moment; the monster's jaws closed around his right arm, his once again FLESHY right arm. Its teeth tearing apart his flesh and muscles, ripping into his arm and attacking the bone inside, he realized that he had screwed up. He had tried to act as though his automail arm had been with him; he'd grown too accustomed to fighting with it, and now, that may cost him everything.

As the beast tore into his arm, its right hand jammed against his chest, and he felt its sharp claws digging into his flesh. In one swift movement, it yanked its head back, tearing the flesh from his arm while, at the same time, ripping its claw over his torso, leaving three bloody gashes down his chest. His ribs exposed, his armbone exposed, he knew the fight was lost but he wouldn't go down this easy. He had made the mistake, and it had allowed this thing to beat him. But he wasn't ready to give in.

Struggling to keep standing. He clapped his left hand against his right, but before he could do anything with it, the beast shoved him back against the wall with its sheer bulk. "Elric," the devil snarled, and as he gazed into its jaws, he saw the mouth of death opening to take him. For his one mistake, he knew he would die here.

BAM

A gunshot pierced the night, and the creature tossed its head back in pain. A bullet tore through its right shoulder, followed by another, ripping into its chest. Roaring its frustration, it took off down the alleyway, away from its pursuer. Denied its victory, denied its kill, the beast had only one consolation to carry him: the wounds it had inflicted were severe enough, Ed just may die anyway. And even if he didn't, there was always tomorrow night.

Footsteps raced past Ed as he lay beaten against the alley wall. Blood dripped from the terrible gashes in his chest, and he knew he was fading. As he strained his eyes to look through the alleyway, he saw a figure standing at the end. Was it Greed? No...no, she was gone. He was having trouble recognizing the figure. It was...who was it? He couldn't see her, his vision had already started to blur. He only hoped she could help him, as consciousness abandoned him.

"COLONEL!" Footsteps sloshed through puddles of water, disrupted by the sound of rain falling around them. The alleyway was dark and cold, and as Lieutenant Sinclair came closer, the image before her horrified her. She had seen terrible atrocities in the war, but nothing as brutal, as truly savage as this. It looked as though some horrible animal had done it.

She couldn't think. She couldn't breathe. She had seen his power firsthand, in the bodies that lay scattered in the street outside, and she could feel terror growing within the very core of her being to see him lying here. Blood mixed with the puddles on the ground, falling from three horrible gashes in his chest. It looked as though claws had done that to him, large, vicious animal claws. With the horrors she'd seen this night, she didn't doubt it. His eyes were closed, his head tilted down to the side, and his entire right arm was bloody and mangled. It looked as though the flesh had been torn right off, and the muscles eviscerated. She could see the bone in his arm through the horrible wound, and she knew that was never a good sign. At least the bone wasn't broken, she sighed..He wasn't moving. She wasn't even sure he was breathing. What could do something like this to Colonel Elric?

"You idiot," she snarled to herself as tears dripped down her cheeks. She knew there wasn't any time to lose, as she started tearing up his red coat for bandages. There wasn't any time to go find help, she would have to improvise for now. She was a medical officer, she could tell just by looking the severity of his injuries. "Why did you go alone?"

Quickly removing the blood-stained black vest from his chest, she went to work wrapping the horrible gashes in his chest. She could feel his breathing weakening, and it was a sound that sent a chill down her spine. "Come on, Colonel, don't die on me." She knew she had to get him out of here, back to the others. She knew she had to get his wounds taken care of, and she didn't have the supplies to do that. "Don't you dare die on me." Lifting him into her arms, with his wounds bandaged with his own red coat to keep the pressure on them, she started back out of the alleyway. Racing as fast as her feet could carry her, needing to get him back to East HQ, she didn't even notice the imposing figure above her, standing on the rooftop.

For there, standing proudly with fresh blood still dripping from his bestial claws, was the monster known as Larson. As he watched them go, his tongue gently licked the blood from his hands, just before he threw his head back and let out a howl that echoed across the city, resonating in every chimera that heard it. His team was being called back. It was not a howl of retreat; this, as they had expected, was a howl of victory.


	13. Chapter 12: Shadow of Death

**Chapter Twelve: Shadow of Death**

Darkness swirled in the blank void the young Edward Elric awoke to. Lights flashed around in a whirlwind around Ed, streaming lights of hundreds of different colors. Each seemed to change color and shape whenever he looked at it, and the swirling vortex seemed to move faster. It felt as though he was moving through the air, rushing towards something...something he couldn't see.

Suddenly, everything came to an immediate stop. The void hovered around him, the colored lights blurred and splayed across it, and he found himself unable to move his body. It was as though time itself had ceased to move. Then, the cracks began. Each colored light found cracks rippling through it, crossing over it and spreading to crack more and more of the light. More cracks grew, and a harsh, ripping sound assaulted Ed's ears until finally, with a horrifying howling sound, the void shattered into a thousand pieces.

And there he was, standing at a place that had come to stalk his darkest nightmares. Before him lay a massive, black set of double doors, set in black stone with two crimson pillars standing up on the sides, with black sculptures of men scaling every surface of it, trying to climb to the top where several sculpture's reached their hands up to grasp a sculpted stone one could assume represented the Philosopher's Stone. This was an image he had come to know too well in his life, known only as the Gateway. Inscribed on the doors of the Gateway was an image of a massive eye, gazing outward.

Ed knew little of this powerful structure. He knew it to be the source of alchemy, and he knew that through the Gateway was a passage that could lead to another world. He also knew of creatures that dwelled within the Gateway, and of them, he knew very little. The Gateway remained a mystery to him, no matter how many answers he was given. He had learned so much of its, and yet, still knew so little.

The doors opened, and he felt fear beginning to rise inside of him. Within, just as always, was a black void of darkness. Eyes opened everywhere, little violet eyes that sent chills through his body every time he looked at them. And above them all was a gigantic violet eye, one that emanated with an unmistakable sense of power. He knew the little eyes belonged to strange, humanoid creatures with long, elastic arms. They clawed and grasped for anything that came too close, though he knew not why. But the large eye that watched over it all...what could the large eye possibly belong to? If those little eyes were each a part of a smaller creature, than what hideous monstrosity could the larger eye be a part of?

Ed took a step back from the horrible Gateway, frightened of the horrors he saw within. But just as always, the arms reached out, grasping his limbs and tearing at them. He felt them go, one after another. One arm torn from his body with ease, separating like a damp sheet of paper. The other arm went next, and then his right leg. His left leg followed, and soon he felt those horrible hands gripping his head, and with terrible clarity he knew what would come next. "Stop!" He tried to struggle, but without his limbs, he could do nothing to stop it.

"Ed, honey?" He heard a voice, as he twisted his neck and tried to fight the creatures. "Sweetheart, you're having a bad dream." He felt his head being to lift from his body, his neck being separated, and he knew he was beaten. "Wake up, Ed."

"Wake up." Ed's eyes opened, and he found himself far away from the Gateway. A blanket lay over his body, and sunlight streamed down through an open window. There was a softness beneath him, which he soon identified as a bed. "There you are," he heard a soft, feminine voice gently beginning to caress his ears. "I was afraid you'd gone away for good," she giggled, and he felt her delicate hands beginning to trace across his chest.

"Where...where am I?" Ed asked, confusion dazing his senses. The last thing he remembered was the alleyway, and the monstrous chimera that had almost killed him. But as his eyes began to get back their focus, he couldn't see it. All he saw was a window with a desk below it, and the gentle sheets of the bed.

"Silly...you're back with me." Ed felt her delicate hands turn his head, and before he knew what happened, a pair of lips set in on his, locking his own in a soft, gentle kiss. A blur of pink ran before his eyes when the kiss set in, and for a moment he couldn't understand what was happening. But when focus returned, he saw more and more of the woman whose hands now gripped his shoulder, and of whose lips sent tingles of happiness, a quiet happiness he hadn't truly felt in years, through his body.

He recognized her dark skin, and the pink hair that draped down in front of her face. The soft brown eyes that looked back at him were eyes he had looked into countless times over the past four years. Eyes that had mesmerized him from the first time he saw them. He knew her name without her having to speak it, he could recognize this woman from a mile away. He didn't know why she was here, why she was kissing him as deeply as she was now, but part of him didn't care. Inside, part of him felt complete here, with the beautiful girl named Rose.

But the other part wasn't ready to accept such confusing happiness. He had seen too much in his life to not be suspicious, and he still didn't know where he was. For all he knew, this could be some trick by the Homonculi; there was one that excelled at mimicking bodies after all, and Ed didn't recall ever seeing that one die. After mustering the strength to pull away from the kiss, his hands gripped Rose by the shoulders and pushed her away, while his voice strained to operate again. "Rose, what's going on? Where are we?"

When he pushed her away, he found the mystery only deepened further. Though, deep inside, he couldn't say he was disappointed. Sitting up out of his hands, Rose smiled down at the blood-red shade that crossed Ed's face. The blanket draped over her shoulders as she sat over him...but nothing else concealed her gorgeous body from his embarrassed eyes.

"Rose?" His voice squeeked from the vision of beauty that lay before him. His body trembled with uncertainty as she reached her hand down and caressed the side of his face with it.

"Oh, come now," she laughed. "You're looking at me like this is our honeymoon all over again." Before he could raise a voice of confusion, she lay back down, resting her head on his chest, with her hands curled up on his pecs. Her hair splayed over her face as she closed her eyes, and the smile that crossed her face made Ed's heart skip a beat.

Clearly there was something here that he was missing. Something he couldn't quite place. As he laid his head back down on the pillow, and reluctantly allowed his arms to close around Rose, letting his hands touch across her gentle back, his mind raced to understand where he was and how everything had happened like this.. "...honeymoon?"

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"How is he?" Erwin Panzlef stood just inside the door, looking in at the room within. Within the medical wing of East HQ, Colonel Edward Elric lay motionless on the bed. Marie had been busy all night, trying to stabilize his condition. With several bandages wrapped around the horrible gashes in his chest, and more around his brutalized right arm, she hadn't been certain he was going to pull through.

"He's doing...well, I think he's doing better. He's out of the critical state, but it was an uphill battle. Things could still turn sour." Erwin couldn't help but notice the worried look on Marie's face, as she sat in her chair beside Ed's bed.

"Are you okay?" He asked, but all he got was a grunt of frustration out of her.

"What do you think? If the colonel dies, do you have any idea how screwed we are? I'm not a soldier, and you barely count." Before Erwin could raise an objection, she fumed on. "Lieutenant Massner hasn't come back from wherever the hell she disappeared to. The only weapons we have are Grueder's rifle and whatever weird kung fu Francis pulled, neither of which will probably so much as dent whatever could do THIS to a State Alchemist!" She gestured at Edward's limp form, to illustrate her words. "So no, I'm not okay. And I especially don't relish going back to Central and telling General Mustang just how spectacularly we've screwed up."

Erwin's eyes traveled to the prone colonel in the bed, and his mind began to wander back to the previous night. "What happened to him? Did you see what did this?"

Marie shook her head. "It was...it was big, but it seemed to have something covering it. Massner ran after it, but I was busy with the colonel." She looked up to Erwin. "What about Massner? Has anyone heard from her?"

Erwin shook his head. "Not as of yet, no. But don't worry, she'll be back. If there's one thing Eva excels at, it's not being noticed."

Marie sighed. "That's great," she turned her head back to the wounded colonel. "Now let's just pray he wakes up before she returns."

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"Come on, we need to hurry." Rose pushed Ed out the door of the Rockbell residence. He still hadn't gathered much more of this place, but he had certainly enjoyed watching her get dressed. Dressed in his black pants and vest, he stepped outside and looked back at her. She definitely looked beautiful in her white dress, the very same he she had worn when he had met her, with his red jacket around her. He didn't know how or why they were here, but he was starting to like it.

"Why did we have to get up?" He asked out of curiosity. His long, blonde braids ran down his back; she had done his braids for him.

"We can't just lay in bed all day, sweetie," she giggled.

"Why not?" Ed smirked, and he received a kiss on the cheek for his effort.

"Because your brother wants to see you," Rose smiled. "He's been waiting for so long." With another kiss, she took him by the hand and started to lead him up the grassy hill before them. The Rockbell house didn't sit on the road where it normally did; in fact, Ed noticed that this place didn't look much like Rizenpool at all. There was nothing but grass for as far as the eye could see, and the whole area appeared to be one large hill that Rose was pulling him up.

"Wait, Al?" Ed's confusion ebbed in his voice. Things were getting more and more strange, and now he wanted answers. "Hold on! Where's Al? What are you talking about?"

But before Rose could answer, Ed heard a voice speak behind him. It was a familiar voice, one he had heard every day for fifteen years, before that voice was taken away. A voice that amplified the uncertainty in Ed's body, and that carried a hint of respect, and a tone of sadness in it. "You still haven't figured it out, Brother?"

Whirling around, Ed's eyes fell on a sight that he couldn't believe. For standing there before him was a boy of nineteen. The boy was tall, a whole foot and a half taller than Ed, and his light brown hair reminded Edward, as it always had, of their mother. Dressed in metallic blues reminiscent of his old suit of armor, and with a symbol on his chest of a cross with a snake coiled around it, the same that was on the back of Ed's jacket and that had been emblazoned across the armor's shoulder, there was no mistaking this boy. "Alphonse?"

As the boy walked up the hill towards him, his eyes fell on Rose. First on the girl herself, and the hand she held Ed's in. Then tracing to Ed's jacket, that he couldn't help but notice looked pretty good on her. Then to the golden ring on her left hand, which solidified it. A smile crossed his face, before he turned his attention back to Ed. "You can't deny it this time, brother. I was right. You really do like Rose."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Ed tried to defend, but Al just shook his head and laughed.

"I can tell you don't know where we are. Brother, you can't deny what's standing next to you. You made her."

Ed raised an eyebrow. "Come again?"

Al sighed. This part was going to be rough. "This is your mind, brother. An image your mind crafted so that you wouldn't be afraid. It needs to focus its strength on the recovery, because right now, you're not doing very well. You're dying, brother. Your soul is teetering on the edge of the Gateway, torn between your body and what lies beyond, and whether or not you'll live through whatever must have happened to you is still in the air."

"Al..." Ed's voice carried a cautious tone now, and his hand gripped Rose's a bit tighter. "I..." He didn't know what to say. Al's words were frightening him, and he wasn't sure what he wanted to do about it. "What about Rose? Why is she here?"

"That's a good question, brother." The smile returned to Al's face. "Why is she here? She's not Rose. Your mind created an illusion that would make you feel good. Funny that it would be Rose as a wife."

Rose wasn't saying anything. Why wasn't she saying anything? "...and what about you?" Ed asked. "Are you just an image to make me feel better? You sound different from the Al I remember. You sound a lot more confident than I remember Al being. And you're not as soft-spoken as he was."

"A lot can happen in four years," Al admitted. "I can't answer your question, brother." Ed's eyes widened, as a red glow began to shine from Al's body. The red glimmer was sight he was all too familiar with, and for a moment, he couldn't breathe. The red glow, he knew to be the Philosopher's Stone, but that only raised more questions. "I shouldn't even be here. The Gateway has opened, and it wants to take you. Don't let it." His eyes fell on Rose for a moment, before he turned his gaze back to his brother. "You have too much to live for right now."

"Al..." Ed's eyes were fixated on his brother now. The shining red glimmer emanating from his body brought tears to Ed's eyes. The Philosopher's Stone had been created in Liore, in the final day of the war. The entire city was consumed in the transmutation, along with a battalion of nearly a thousand soldiers. All this had been done by the scarred man of Ishbal, whose true name was unknown. Sacrificing himself as one of the ingredients, Scar had created the Philosopher's Stone, but not as a stone. Instead, Al's soul had been transmuted into the Stone. Al's soul...

CRACK

A horrible split ran up the hill, and the grass turned a deathly gray. A blast of cold air washed through the grass, killing it as it moved. As it washed over the house, the whole thing turned to a desolate ruin, flashing into a destroyed, broken down shack as soon as the wave had passed. The blue sky had turned to black clouds, and a chill wind now blew through the place. Rose had vanished entirely, and the two brothers were now left alone.

Ed looked around, trying to make sense of it, and Al just sighed. "It's started."

"What has?"

Al looked at Ed. "It was good seeing you again, brother. I wish I could tell you more, but you're not ready to know the Gateway, or its workings. You'll understand in time, like I do. But not today. But before that, you need to get through this ordeal, and I can't help you with that. I'm sorry. It was good seeing you again, brother, I just wish we could have had more time to talk. Until next time..." With those words, Al faded, his body turning to red energy, before the energy crackled and disappeared into thin air. And suddenly, Ed was alone on the chilling hill.

Lightning cracked through the sky, and suddenly, Ed was afraid. All that ran through his mind were the words of the person that said he was his brother: "You're dying, brother."

----------------------------------------------------

"Mommy?" Rose stood terrified in the front lawn, at the Rockbell estate in Rizenpool. Her body trembled as she stood in the grass, staring into the soft wind. The sun shone down on her delicate face, but she couldn't feel it. She couldn't move, she couldn't breathe. Her heart felt as though it was ceasing to beat, and she didn't even understand why she was so afraid. "Mommy, what's wrong?"

Tears began to roll down her cheeks as she stood in the quiet grass. She didn't understand why she felt this way, but she couldn't recall a time her heart had ever hurt this bad. She had seen more than her share of pain, had suffered more agony than anyone ever should. Her body had been broken, and she still carried the scars. But this ran deeper. It felt as though her heart was tearing in half, and she couldn't explain why.

As she looked to the sky, she was very afraid. Somewhere, something terrible was happening. Something that could destroy her. Someone she loved was fighting for his life, and with horrifying clarity, this realization sent a chill running down her spine. As the tears fell from her face, she closed her eyes and curled herself up on the hilltop. Oblivious to the worried attempts by her son to rouse her, oblivious to the world around her, she fell into a pit of darkness from the terror in her soul. No matter how hard her son tried to budge her, no matter how hard Winry, who had seen her break down and came to help, tried to move her, only one word would escape her lips.

"Edward..."


	14. Chapter 13: Dead and Alive

**Chapter Thirteen: Dead and Alive**

A cold chill washed over Ed as he felt the dark wind blowing across the field. Al and Rose had faded with the blue sky, leaving a dark, stormy air above. The green grass withered and died, the trees around the house now dead, and the house itself broken, with holes and gashes running all through it. His happy place had just died.

"Al! Where are you!" Ed yelled into the torrentious sky, but not a sound came in return save for the dark wind whipping across his ears. As the wind blew stronger, he raised his right arm to shield his face, but as the wind touched him, he found it affecting him, changing him just as it had the rest of the field. He watched his own flesh melting away, oozing and dripping from his arm, staining the blackened grass below.

"AAARGH!" He could feel its sting, the horrible, burning agony in his arm, and it brought him to his knees. He had felt this once before, this horrible pain of having his body burn away, torn from him and broken into thousands of pieces. He had given his arm once before, to bind his brother's soul to a suit of armor in order to save his life. He didn't know why he was feeling this now. He–

"AAAAH!" The pain attacked his leg now, ripping and melting his left leg, taking it with his right arm. The agony was indescribable, as if millions of knives were tearing into him, breaking him into a million pieces to make something new. On his knees now, his right arm already melted away and his left nothing more than a bleeding, oozing stump, he struggled with one arm and one leg to stay up, to keep from falling down. "Why...why is this happening?"

"**WHAT IS MINE WILL ALWAYS BE MINE, LITTLE ALCHEMIST. REMEMBER THAT.**"

Fear gripped Edward's heart when he heard the horrible voice echoing in his heart. A deep, whispering voice that had penetrated every surface of his mind, striking at his deepest fears and insecurities. He hesitated, trying not to be afraid, trying with every ounce of strength in his body to be strong, but something inside him was too terrified to even move. The voice sounded familiar, it sounded so very familiar yet he had never heard it before. It had spoken to him once, but when?

Turning his head up, trying desperately to find the source of the terrifying voice, he found nothing to greet him. The blackened ruins of the house and the gray, ashen grass was all that met his gaze, before he turned his eyes back downwards. Blood oozed from his stumps but he didn't feel any wearier. Why wasn't he starting to feel it? He was losing so much blood...he should be passing out, but he wasn't. Was it because this was his mental place, not a physical one? Was this all in his head?

"**YOU WILL NOT DIE UNTIL I AM READY FOR YOU TO DIE, ALCHEMIST. I DO NOT RELINQUISH WHAT IS MINE SO EASILY.**"

"WHO ARE YOU!" Edward shouted into the air, but his voice met no response. This thing, whatever it was, had him entirely in its control. Maybe this was in his head...maybe not. It didn't matter right now, he realized. Real or not, this was real to him, and that's what counted. "What do you want from me? What are you talking about? What is yours?"

"**YOU ARE MINE.**"

A chill ran down Ed's spine as the creature spoke, and with horrifying clarity, he understood where the voice was coming from. He had looked all around the field, but there was one place he hadn't looked. Terrified to see it, terrified of knowing, he slowly turned his eyes upwards, looking straight up into the horrible storm. And there, shimmering down at him, was a sight that sent terror into every part of his being, an image that shook his very soul, and one he had seen a couple times before: a massive, violet eye, a hundred feet wide, with a swirling pupil gazing straight down at him. The eye he had seen so many times before, the giant eye that overlooked the Gateway of Alchemy.

"**YOUR BODY WAS CREATED FROM ME. YOUR LIFE WAS FASHIONED FROM ME. I BUILT EVERY PART OF YOUR NEW BODY, MADE YOU WHOLE AND RESTORED WHAT YOU HAD LOST. YOU WERE DEAD AND I GAVE YOU LIFE. YOU WERE BROKEN AND I MADE YOU NEW. YOU LIVE BECAUSE I ALLOWED IT TO BE. YOU. ARE. MINE.**"

"Alchemy..." His voice just a bare whisper, Ed struggled to understand the figure above him. A powerful manifestation of alchemy, something from inside the Gateway. He was afraid of what it could mean, afraid of what its words were trying to tell him. What did it mean? He wasn't sure he wanted to know.

-----------------------------------------

"Vhat iz 'appening!" Francis's voice shouted in Marie's ear. Her hands gripped his shoulders, trying desperately to hold him still as his body shook and convulsed in the hospital bed. Francis stood over her, watching in terror and confusion at the strange attack that had taken over Colonel Elric.

"I don't know!" Marie shouted back, trying to hold the injured colonel down. "He's going to make his wounds worse if he keeps this up!" Standing over him, trying to force him down with her own weight, Marie was astonished by the kind of strength he was shaking with. She put every ounce of strength she had into trying to hold him down, but he was shaking her off like nothing. "Give me a hand here! Gah, how does a guy this small get so damned strong!"

Francis took the other side of the bed, helping Marie to force the colonel down. With both of them pushing together, they finally managed to get him to lie back. Hands on his wrists and shoulders, they held him down until he ceased to thrash, before they allowed their muscles to relax. "Like riding ze bull vit'out ze–"

FLASH

A powerful light washed over them, emanating from the wounded colonel's body. A burst of energy threw both lieutenants back against the far wall, as the colonel's form began to lift slowly from the bed. Marie had seen this energy before, the swirling power of alchemy that was now washing in and out of his body, but she couldn't understand what it could mean. She'd never seen it take a human before, and she certainly didn't understand just what was happening to him.

"My god..." she spoke in a hushed whisper, as the bandages ripped and tore apart, revealing the bleeding gashes in his chest and arm. As she watched in terror, the wounds slowly began to patch themselves up. The torn muscles and tendons slowly reattached themselves. The gashed, fractured bones hardened and filled in the holes, before the flesh sewed itself back up. Was this alchemy? There was no alchemist to do it. Was he doing it? In all her years in the military, she had never seen anything like this.

-----------------------------------------

On the ground now, gripping his right stump with his left arm, Ed strained to keep his eyes from returning up to the horrible figure in the sky. "Not...yours...I'm not..." He tried to speak, but the pain had increased, the agony now far greater than when he'd lost his limbs trying to resurrect his dead mother. Why did it hurt so much more now than it had then? Was it the creature's doing?

"**YOU HAVE NO CHOICE, ALCHEMIST. THE CHOICE HAS ALREADY BEEN MADE.**"

"No..." Ed struggled with all his might, trying to make it go away. "You can't...you can't control me..."

"**THIS WAS NEVER ABOUT CONTROL, ALCHEMIST. THIS IS ABOUT WHAT'S MINE.**"

The dark wind rippled once more across the field, and the dead grass now turned to cold, orange stone. The storm faded, the house vanished, and he was left now, alone before the image that haunted his nightmares. The massive Gateway lay open, and the hundreds of smaller eyes no longer peeked out at him. A dark, black void lay open before him, with only the large eye now staring down at Edward.

He wouldn't go in there. He couldn't. He had to fight it, had to be stronger than this. Pulling back from the Gateway, crawling back with the one hand he had left, he could see a small light in the distance, away from the dark, black void. If he could just–

Something strong latched onto his right leg, gripping it firmly in its grasp. Something small but powerful started to pull back, drawing him towards the void, towards the cold, black uncertainty within. Another grasped his leg, and another, pulling and dragging him back towards the vortex.

"**NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, ALCHEMIST, NEVER FORGET THAT YOU ARE MINE.**"

"I'm not...I..." Looking back for only a moment, Ed saw the small, black claws that now held his leg in their grasp. Dozens of them coming out from the Gateway, grasping him and pulling him back, too many for him to count. The smaller eyes had returned, all acting under the command of the larger.

He sank his left fingernails into the ground beneath him, trying desperately to be free of the creature. He couldn't let himself be drawn in, he knew that only darkness lay in that direction. He couldn't die here, but...he felt them dragging him back. His fingernails scraped against the ground as they struggled in vain for a grip that would never come to them.

Ten feet away now, he tried to pull himself back. His fingers grasped and searched for any handhold he could find. If he only had another arm, perhaps he could crawl, rather than trying to drag himself, and maybe have enough strength to match the claws that now dragged him towards the void. If he only had another arm.

Five feet now, his left arm began swatting back at the tiny claws gripping his leg. Maybe if he could get enough of them off, it would weaken their hold. His stomach ached from being dragged across the stone, and fear rose up in his mind again while his fingers diligantly worked to pry the damned things from his leg. But they had sank in deep enough to bleed, and his efforts were in vain.

Just a couple feet now, he pried at those claws with all the might he could muster. "ALPHONSE! WHERE ARE YOU!" Al had left him to this thing, had vanished just before it could appear. He had to know something, and maybe he could help. He had to–

Ed felt his leg swallowed in the darkness. The Gateway had him and it was not letting go. His hand now returned to the stone ahead, trying desperately to free him, to pull him out as his waist and stomach sank into the void. Soon, all was darkness. His body fell into the dark, and the only light was the open Gateway, which began to close once he was through. Hope abandoned him when the doors fell shut, and the light of the world was forever gone from his eyes. Or so he believed.

-----------------------------------------

Darkness. Absolute darkness.

Rose.

The mission. I failed. I didn't...I failed. I couldn't do it. The mission. I failed.

Rose. I failed you, Rose.

Darkness. Darkness everywhere. Suffocating. Can't get out. I'm sorry. I failed you. I can't get out. Darkness. Darkness.

Rose. Where are you?

Al? Is she okay? Al, where are you? Talk to me, is she okay?

Rose.

So dark. Can't think. Can't breath. Where am I? What is this place?

The eyes. So many eyes. Eyes everywhere. Little eyes. Big eye. Where's the big eye?

Rose, where are you? I need you. Rose, I'm sorry. I wanted...I'm sorry.

Can't think. Getting harder. Can't...can't focus.

Rose, I'm sorry. I wanted...I wanted to help you.

I failed. The mission failed. I'm a failure. I failed everyone.

Can't think. Can't...can't focus...getting...harder...

Rose...no, don't...go...

...can't focus...can't...can't th...i...nk...

R...o...s...e...

I...Rose...I...l...o...v...

-----------------------------------------

The light lay shattered and broken on the ground. The bed was splintered in pieces, and chunks of wood were sunk in the walls and floor. The door to the hospital room was now a splintered piece of plywood, and the bedside table was in so many pieces it was no longer even recognizable. The window had been shattered, the floor and walls shredded, the only thing that seemed to have remained intact was the body of Colonel Edward Elric.

Francis had protectively thrown himself over Marie, but now that the alchemy storm had passed, she shoved him harshly out of the way to get to the colonel. "Colonel!" His body lay motionless atop the shattered, broken mattress, and she knew deep inside without even having to check. Her fingers ran to his arm, seeking out a pulse, but the cold skin on his neck told her everything she needed to know. The lack of his pulse told the tale without question. His body was cold and his heart wasn't beating. The colonel was dead.

How could he be cold so fast? This made even less sense than the storm. His body was cold, and his right arm was hard, and it felt smooth beneath her–

Her trembling eyes fell to his arm, and things made even less sense. Where there had been flesh, there was now metal. His entire right arm was now composed of cold steel, running up to an attachment point on his shoulder. Masterwork craftsmanship made up his joints and pieces, with an attaching scar that ran across his chest. His left leg carried a similar construct, what she knew to be automail. He hadn't had this before the storm.

Chink

The finger of his right hand began to move. The automail finger jumped, and Marie jumped higher. Dead people didn't get cold this fast, and live people certainly didn't move when their hearts weren't beating. "C...colonel...?" Her voice was barely more than a whisper, as she stared in terror at his arm. But it didn't move again.

Maybe it was her nerves playing a trick on her, or something. She was scared now, more scared than she had been before. The mission was a failure, and she did not envy the thought of reporting this to General Mustang. He'd spoken so highly of the colonel...he was going to kill them when he found out.

Tears filled her eyes, and she pulled herself up into a ball. Francis stood over the destroyed bed, looking down at the colonel's body. He didn't need Marie to tell him; he could tell by her reaction. There was nothing to say. Nothing left to do but have a moment of silence, for the brave, departed colonel.

-----------------------------------------

"ROSE!" Power welled up within him, power he had never known before. Light echoed through the darkness, washing forward from him. His left arm struck and bashed the creatures away, and he felt himself changed by this strange power within him. His right arm manifested, his automail sprouting from the stump, appearing in a flash of light before crashing into anything and everything that tried to stand between him and the doors.

His left leg appeared in another flash, more automail to carry him forward. He didn't know what was happening, but he didn't care. "ROSE!" He was getting out of here, and he was not letting anything stop him. He was Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist, and nothing was going to keep him away.

His skin turned an ashen gray as he moved, smashing the tiny humanoids out of the way with his automail arm. With every step he was transformed, his eyes glowing yellow, his hair breaking free of its braids and darkening to a cold, dark green. He could feel it taking him, feel this strange power growing within him, but he wasn't afraid. All he cared about now was her.

As he moved, he heard the voice once more chilling his heart. But he found he didn't care as much as he had before. He wasn't going to let anything, not even his own fear, stop him now.

"**GO, MY ALCHEMIST. TAKE WHAT YOU DESIRE. BUT NEVER FORGET THAT YOU WILL ALWAYS BE MINE.**"

-----------------------------------------

His eyes shot open, and Ed sat up in the destroyed bed where he had lain. Gasping for breath, he finally made his way back into the world of the living, back into consciousness. A disquieting stillness occupied his chest, but it took him a moment of breathing before he noticed. Something was wrong. His heart...why wasn't his heart beating?

"Colonel!" Turning his head to his right, he saw Lieutenant Sinclair sitting wide-eyed on the floor. The room was completely destroyed, with pieces of bed, window, and table smashed into every surface. The lieutenant was completely spooked; her lips quivered open as she struggled to speak, and goosebumps ran all across her skin.

But Ed couldn't muster the strength to speak right now. Why wasn't his heart beating? That was a more important question. He felt cold...and his heart still wasn't beating. Taking his eyes off Sinclair, Ed turned them down to his chest, reaching his right hand to try and touch where his gashes had been. They were mysteriously gone, they must have healed in the time he'd been out. How long had he been out?

Before he could ask, his eyes fell on his right hand, when it touched his chest. The metal of his automail was more than familiar to him, and it frightened him even more than his still heart did. "What the..." But before he could press further, warmth filled his body, and he felt himself starting to change.

As he watched, the automail softened, changing slowly back into flesh. Skin replaced steel and finernails replaced the little holes at the ends of his fingers. Bone replaced metal and muscle replaced piston, while the little hairs grew back onto his arm. Before he could watch any further, he felt a familiar thumping return to his chest. His heart had started to beat, and the coldness had been replaced by a strange, familiar warmth, the warmth of the living.

Lieutenant Sinclair watched in awe as the transformation took effect. She had a better view of it than Ed did, watching his ashen gray skin change back to a gentle, peach pigmentation, and his dark green hair slowly soften back to blond. His yellow eyes that had glowed like some horrible monster now returned to their calm, blue tone, and before long the colonel had returned to normal.

This...this was getting a very long mission, Ed sighed. He didn't know what had just happened to him, and he had too much of a scientific mind to simply pass it off. His right arm lifted slowly to his forehead, gently rubbing it while he tried to make sense of things. Sense came to him shortly after, however, but it was a sense that filled him with dread to see. He thought he had returned entirely to normal, but one thing had remained, something that awakened all the deepest fears he had ever held.

For carved into the skin of his right wrist, just beneath his palm where he had easily seen it when he'd lifted his hand, was a symbol he was all too familiar with. A winged snake wrapped in a circle, devouring its own tail, with two triangles facing opposite directions within it. It was the Ouroborous, the Snake that Eats Itself.

He knew it best as the mark of the Homonculi.


End file.
